Urge Your Representative and Senators to Oppose Expanding Medicare to Include Dental

  • by AGD Washington Advocacy Representative
  • Sep 8, 2021

Congress is considering legislation to expand Medicare to include dental services.

It is critical for you to register your opposition NOW with your elected officials. Urge them to consider the unforeseen and significant consequences for patients and providers that enacting an unsound policy to expand Medicare to include dental benefits may yield.

  • Dental benefit expansion proposals being considered by Congress will not encourage provider participation or address low-income seniors’ immediate oral health needs.
  • Without a robust network of providers willing to participate in any proposed expansion plans, seniors will not receive the dental care they need through federal programs.
  • Current proposals would take away market-based care delivery choice options many seniors participate in, such as Medicare Advantage (MA) plans.
  • The proposals being considered have the obvious potential to undo and reverse decades of enormous progress that dentistry has made in improving and preserving the oral health of our senior citizens.
  • If reimbursement does not incentivize provider participation and the administrative requirements are too onerous, dental providers will forgo participation in the program, and seniors will not receive quality dental care. The budget projections are unrealistically low and will not support provider participation and the benefits that our seniors need and deserve.

Please do your part – this is critical to your profession and your patients

Thank you for all you do to support dentistry!

Please take action and urge your Representatives and Senators to Oppose Medicare Expansion