AUGUSTA, Maine — The Maine Legislature is taking on for a 3rd consecutive 12 months a proposal to develop preventive dental protection to about 70,000 adults underneath MaineCare.
Maine is certainly one of 10 states that present solely emergency care, however that will change underneath the proposal so as to add preventive providers to the state’s model of Medicaid. A public listening to was held on Monday earlier than the Legislature’s Well being and Human Providers Committee.
“The best way that MaineCare delivers oral well being to adults is irrational, financially wasteful and promotes low-quality outcomes,” Home Speaker Ryan Fecteau mentioned throughout Monday throughout a information convention.
The bipartisan invoice is much like one launched final 12 months that obtained unanimous help from the Well being and Human Providers Committee, however died when the Legislature adjourned because of the pandemic.
Maine youngsters with Medicaid get full dental advantages, however protection lapses once they turn out to be adults, apart from emergency care.
In 2012, a state process drive discovered that MaineCare spent $17 million a 12 months on emergency dental care that would have been averted, Fecteau mentioned.
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