What is the Affordable Care Act?
The comprehensive healthcare reform law, the Affordable Care Act (ACA), or sometimes called “Obamacare” was initiated by President Barack Obama in 2010.
The law has 3 primary goals:
- Make affordable health insurance available to more people. The law provides consumers with subsidies (“premium tax credits”) that lower costs for households with incomes between 100% and 400% of the federal poverty level (FPL).
- Expand the Medicaid program to cover all adults with income below 138% of the FPL. (Not all states have expanded their Medicaid programs.)
- Support innovative medical care delivery methods designed to lower the costs of health care generally.
Originally, the ACA required every U.S. resident to purchase a healthcare plan, and those without an insurance plan were subject to a tax penalty. Anyone unable to afford healthcare was offered assistance by the federal government.
In 2019, President Trump reduced the tax penalty for not having health insurance to $0, so individuals without a health insurance plan will not receive a fine in most states.
Why does it matter?
Many patients can afford dental care because of the Affordable Care Act through Medicaid expansion.
Medicaid is the single largest source of health coverage in the United States. It is a joint program on both the federal and state levels that provides health coverage for over 85.2 million people in the US. There are certain groups of individuals mandated by the federal government that states must cover. However, states also have the option to cover additional groups of people. This is called expanding Medicaid coverage.
The ACA created the opportunity for states to expand Medicaid to cover children, nearly all low-income US citizens under age 65, and adults with income at or below 133% of the federal poverty line.
The ACA included features specifically affecting oral health:
- Required every state’s Medicaid to include pediatric coverage.
- Required health care exchanges to offer pediatric dental benefits.
- Expanded dependent coverage has been shown to improve affordability of dental care for young adults.
ASDA Policies
ASDA’s E-12 policy encourages all U.S. CODA-accredited dental schools to accept Medicaid at their respective clinics.
ASDA’s H-2 policy supports evidence-based measures that are efficacious and sustainable in reducing barriers to care in underserved communities. These measures include, but are not limited to, early intervention, Medicaid expansion and co-location of health services.
What has ASDA done?
Students and dentists have lobbied members of Congress in support of bills addressing health care reform at ASDA and the ADA’s annual Lobby Day in Washington, D.C.