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Happy Anniversary, Affordable Care Act!
Today marks the second anniversary of President Obama's signing of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). Portions of the law have already taken affect, including provisions that ensure Americans have access to preventive services at no cost and prohibitions on lifetime limits on health Starting in 2014, the law will provide tens of millions of Americans with affordable high quality health care coverage
The ACA will also make millions of previously uninsured children eligible for dental coverage. Additionally, Congress included nearly two dozen provisions directly related to improving Americans' oral health in the areas of coverage, prevention & health promotion, safety net, workforce & training, quality & surveillance, and infrastructure development.
Some of the oral health-related highlights of the ACA include:
- Oral Health Services for Children: The law includes a pediatric health benefit as part of the overall Essential Health Benefits package which all plans participating in the state Exchanges and in the small group market outside of the Exchanges must provide. Included in the pediatric portion of the benefits package are oral and vision services, which means that nearly 8 million children across the country will be eligible for dental coverage starting in 2014.
- Oral Health Infrastructure: Currently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provides funding to 20 states through cooperative agreements that focus on building a state's capacity to prevent and manage dental disease by implementing a number of critical public health initiatives. These state oral health programs are responsible for supporting community water fluoridation, dental sealant programs, and are integral to producing the research and knowledge base that moves oral health policy forward at the state and national level. The ACA directs the CDC to expand availability of funding for these programs to all states and territories.
- Public Education Campaign: Preventing dental caries, the disease that causes cavities, is multifaceted and requires strategic systems solutions as represented by the numerous oral health provisions in the ACA. One of the most critical of these solutions is public education; increasing public knowledge about the importance of their oral health and what individuals and communities can do to prevent and treat the disease. The ACA directs the Secretary of HHS to establish a 5-year oral health public education campaign in order achieve this goal.
- Dental Caries Disease Management: Tooth decay is the result of a progressive, infectious disease caused by dental caries. In order to prevent decay, the disease must be managed and there are a number of low cost interventions to arrest and even reverse tooth decay by managing the disease process. The ACA directs HHS to award grants to demonstrate the effectiveness of research-based dental caries management strategies.
These provisions, among others, are critical pieces of the Affordable Care Act that support the expansion of children's coverage and the quality of the care delivery system. That is why the Children's Dental Health Project is working to ensure that Congress makes these important provisions a priority by funding them in the FY 2013 budget.
For additional information on how the Affordable Care Act will improve children's oral health, visit us at www.cdhp.org
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