Dental coverage under Medicare could soon start expanding for seniors under a new proposal from the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
Still, the proposed rules would not provide full coverage for regular dental care, which has been explicitly excluded from Medicare since the program’s founding in 1965.
“Traditional Medicare doesn’t cover routine preventive dental services, such as exams, cleanings, X-rays, nor more expensive services such as fillings, crowns or dentures,” said Meredith Freed, a Medicare expert with the Kaiser Family Foundation.
However, the new proposal would effectively open the door to Medicare potentially covering a wider array of dental services if medical science can demonstrate that oral health substantially improves the outcomes of different diseases and treatments.
Source: There’s a Push to Expand Medicare’s Coverage of Dental Issues / US News