Most Employees Expect Dental Benefits Will Be Dropped

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A July poll conducted by Opinion Research Corporation for the National Association of Dental Plans (NADP) found more than half (56%) of all Americans with employer-sponsored dental benefits are "likely or very likely" to drop their coverage under health care reform financing proposals that tax health benefits.

With 97 percent of dental benefits in the United States provided through employers and other groups, the poll results indicate that 81.7 million Americans are likely to join the ranks of the dentally uninsured if these benefits are taxed.

"These results are alarming," said Evelyn Ireland, CAE, NADP Executive Director. "Three decades of steady increases in Americans with dental coverage and parallel improvements in oral health would be wiped out by taxation of dental benefits. The impact of taxation falls heaviest on families."

The Surgeon General also reports Americans without dental benefits are 2.5 times less likely to go to the dentist. Scientific literature increasingly makes connections between gum disease and chronic diseases like diabetes, cardiovascular disease as well as pre-term births. Industry data is also beginning to find measurable medical cost savings stemming from treatment of dental diseases.

Taken together, this means the loss of dental benefits resulting from new taxes on those benefits are likely to have significant negative impacts on Americans' oral and overall health. Without regular dental exams, diseases will go undiagnosed and Americans will experience more extensive and costly dental and medical procedures.