U.S. Sens. Barbara Mikulski and Ben Cardin and Rep. Elijah Cummings (all D-MD), are urging the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to reconsider its final rule on the children's dental care provisions to be offered in health exchanges starting in 2014.
HHS has weakened the provisions that would guarantee affordable dental coverage for all American children, Sen. Mikulski noted in a news release.
"In the United States of America, we shouldn't lose kids because they don't have access to a dentist," she said. "In the Affordable Care Act, we made sure that American children would have access to affordable, quality dental care. The HHS needs to make sure that promise is fulfilled. If this rule is allowed to stay as is, HHS will take the bite out of the provisions we fought for that would ensure no child would ever again have to risk his life from something as treatable as tooth decay."
"Unfortunately, with this new rule, American families could be subjected to prohibitive out-of-pocket costs and the definition of 'affordable' cost-sharing for pediatric dental coverage would be left to the states," Sen. Cardin added.
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