Billions of dollars in new Wall Street taxes proposed to pay for national dental insurance plan

Under their bill, comprehensive dental coverage would be given to all Medicare, Medicaid and Veterans Affairs beneficiaries. It would also increase funding across various federal agencies to increase oral health services at health centers, add funds for dental care at schools and provide grant money for people to receive dental care in clinics rather than emergency rooms.

{mosads}The bill, S. 3272, would spend money to boost the supply of dentists, including by creating scholarships for dental workers, and would also create an oral health professional student loan program.

Sanders and Cummings said on Thursday that the government needs to expand dental coverage in these ways because oral health is the part of the healthcare crisis in the United States that has so far been ignored. Sanders said 130 million Americans have no dental insurance, and many older Americans have lost their teeth and rarely visit a dentist.

“When we talk about the health care crisis in America we often ignore a very important aspect of that crisis; that tens of millions of Americans are unable to access affordable dental care and they suffer as a result of that,” Sanders said Thursday. “Today, by introducing what we believe is the most comprehensive dental care legislation in American history, we start addressing that issue.”

A national seniors group said it supports the bill as a way to address gaps in dental coverage. The two members released a report noting that 10 states offer no dental benefits to adults enrolled in Medicaid.