Dental woes, brought to you by Obamacare

With the headlong pursuit of mandated health care, one benefit has been largely left to fend for itself. Dental care has been treated by the health care industry for many years as that red-headed stepchild that parents are not sure how to deal with or where to put them. Because the primary issue with government and commercial insurance has been focused on primary medical and major medical care, the dental business has been trying in earnest to keep up, but seemingly not able to keep pace.

According to the Washington Post, the health care law outlines 10 major benefit categories that all insurance plans will need to cover by 2014. These are known, in the health care law, as the “essential health benefits,” the medical services that are crucial to keeping Americans healthy. The essential health benefits include things like maternity care and hospitalizations. It includes “pediatric services, including oral and vision care.” There’s nothing, however, that would require coverage of such services for adults.