Children’s advocacy groups are pushing the state exchange to switch gears and embed medical care and kids’ dental care into a single policy, with premiums cut by charging the same price to families with children and without.
Failure to do so would result in higher costs and less dental care to vulnerable youth who need it badly, according to Kathleen Hamilton of the Children’s Partnership, a coalition of advocacy groups.
“The consequences of not getting dental care for kids run the gamut from missed school days and inadequate diets – because children can’t chew well – to secondary infections and social malaise,” Hamilton said. “It’s chronic, it’s serious and it’s unfair.”
