Bill to expand dental benefits for Medicaid recipients passes Senate

Almost 100,000 Granite Staters on Medicaid show up nearer than at any time to finding preventative dental added benefits with legislation passed Thursday by the Senate in a 24- vote. Presently Medicaid dental insurance handles only unexpected emergency care these types of as extractions.

New Hampshire is a single of about a dozen states that do not go over preventative dental care for people on Medicaid, which includes reduced-money and aged inhabitants, as nicely as people with disabilities.

It’s the 3rd 12 months in a row related legislation has arrive shut but failed in the remaining hours about price tag fears. Household Invoice 103 can take a new solution by paying out for expanded added benefits with $21 million in settlement funds the point out secured in January towards a enterprise employed to handle Medicaid pharmacy added benefits.

The bill handed the Dwelling in March in a 237-100 vote. It heads following to the Senate Finance Committee with anticipations it will pass offered that the committee endorsed equivalent laws in Senate Bill 422 in February.

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“We move a large amount of payments in this article. Numerous of them are specialized in nature,” Sen. Cindy Rosenwald, a Nashua Democrat and key sponsor of SB 422, explained to fellow Senators Thursday. “They make some changes to packages or definitions. Only a several of them have a direct optimistic impression on people’s lives. And Property Monthly bill 103 is one of people handful of. It will have a immediate positive affect on people’s life.”

Gov. Chris Sununu has said he supports growing dental positive aspects but vetoed laws that would have accomplished so in July 2020, 4 months into the pandemic, citing price tag considerations as the point out faced economic uncertainty.

This story was originally published by New Hampshire Bulletin.

This post initially appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Dental treatment gains for NH Medicaid recipients would expand through monthly bill