The booming Medicaid market

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D entistry is in the midst of a major transition. One key driver of change is the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which has many provisions relevant to the dental care sector. A key provision of the ACA is Medicaid expansion, which has the potential to reshape the dental benefits landscape considerably. Let’s first look at trends in Medicaid before ACA. For more than a decade, public health insurance coverage for children was growing steadily with the expansion of Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Because dental benefits for children are mandatory under Medicaid and CHIP, this trend altered the dental benefits landscape considerably. In 2000, 20% of US children had dental benefits through Medicaid and CHIP, 58% had dental benefits through private dental plans, and 22% had no dental benefits. By 2012, the percentage of US children with dental benefits through Medicaid and CHIP increased to 37%, whereas the percentage with private dental benefits decreased to 50%; the percentage with no form of dental benefits decreased andwas cut almost in half to 13%.When it comes to children, Medicaid is no longer a low-income-only program, and income eligibility in most states is many times the federal poverty level. For adults, on the other hand, the pre-ACA trends have been different. Adult dental benefits are