Dental Coverage In Health Insurance Marketplaces Discussed.

California Healthline (12/2, Drost) states that under the Affordable Care Act, “adult dental coverage is not considered an essential health benefit,” allowing exchanges to decide whether to offer adult coverage. The article states the law’s flexibility has resulted in health insurance exchanges taking “different approaches to adult dental coverage,” with some exchanges choosing to offer dental coverage immediately, while others delayed offering adult dental coverage. Still, the article adds that an ADA Health Policy Institute research brief “looked at health insurance exchanges in 40 states and found that 35.7% of the health plans offered in 2015 included embedded pediatric or family dental benefits,” up from 26.8% in 2014.

        The National Academy For State Health Policy (12/1) states that “the way that the ACA structures dental coverage has created a number of implementation challenges relating to affordability, benefit design, and consumer experience.” According to the article, the National Academy for State Health Policy examines “these issues in a comprehensive report,” providing an update on how health insurance marketplaces have handled dental coverage.