ADA News

Manchester, Maine—Maine could be the first state in the nation to lift the restrictions on the age children can be enrolled in a dental insurance plan.

After aggressive lobbying by the Maine Dental Association, the Maine legislature passed a bill that prohibits insurance companies from setting restrictions on the age children can be enrolled in their parents' dental plans. One plan wasn’t offering coverage for children under the age of 4, according to the MDA.

Maine Gov. John E. Baldacci (seated) signs a bill that lifts the age restrictions for children to be enrolled in a dental insurance plan. Mr. Baldacci is joined by Sen. Justin Alfond (left), the bill sponsor, and Dr. Jonathan Shenkin (right), president of the Maine Dental Association.

The American Dental Association recommends a child's first visit to the dentist occur by his or her first birthday.

Dr. Jonathan Shenkin, president of the Maine Dental Association, and a pediatric dentist, noticed the gap in coverage when a 4½-year-old patient came into his office needing extensive treatment. The mother admitted she would have brought her child in sooner but her insurance company wouldn't provide coverage until the child was 4 years old. Dr. Shenkin found that odd, so he investigated.

While Dr. Shenkin only found Northeast Delta Dental—the largest provider of dental benefit plans in the state—to have age restrictions, he proposed having the practice banned across the board to assure that dependent coverage would be available for children from birth. Ultimately, Northeast Delta Dental ended up supporting the bill.

The MDA worked with its lobbyist to draft legislative language, and the bill was on its way through the Maine General Assembly. A green light from a legislative insurance committee yielded swift passage in both the state House and Senate, and the bill was signed March 31. 

It's the belief of the Maine Dental Association that Maine is the first state to legislatively remove the age restrictions.

"With the passage of this bill, the playing field in the dental benefits world is now leveled and all dental benefit plans must make dependent coverage available to children from birth and are forbidden to place arbitrary age limits on initial entry into a dental plan," Dr. Shenkin said. "We are aware that similar practices with dental benefits are occurring in other New England states, and we hope that our legislation in Maine paves the way for other states to end this practice of setting age restrictions for enrollment into dental benefit plans."