The American Dental Association (ADA) is urging the Senate Finance Committee to make oral health a core part of national strategies to control rising health care costs. The message came in a detailed letter submitted before the committee’s hearing, The Rising Cost of Health Care: Considering Meaningful Solutions for All Americans.
The Nov. 19 comments, signed by ADA President Richard Rosato, D.M.D., and Interim Executive Director Elizabeth Shapiro, D.D.S., outline several recommendations for reducing cost drivers and improving access to dental care. Representing more than 150,000 dentists across the country, the ADA emphasized its position as the nation’s leading authority on oral health.
“Oral health is inseparable from overall health,” the ADA leaders wrote. They noted that preventable dental disease causes unnecessary pain, lost work time, and avoidable emergency department visits, particularly among low-income and medically vulnerable groups.
The ADA’s recommendations focus on five key areas. The first is prevention and early intervention. The organization stressed that preventing disease is the most effective and affordable approach to maintaining oral health. It highlighted community-level strategies — including water fluoridation and school-based dental programs — as proven ways to reduce disease and long-term costs. The ADA also called for dental benefit designs that remove financial barriers to diagnostic and preventive care.
The Association urged Congress to help reduce out-of-pocket expenses by improving dental benefit structures. It opposed annual and lifetime coverage maximums in dental plans, especially when limits are too low and do not reflect inflation. It also recommended clearer, more comparable plan summaries for employers and consumers. In addition, the ADA asked for standardized Medicare Advantage supplemental dental benefit disclosures so that older adults can easily understand covered services, cost-sharing, and provider networks.
The ADA also pressed for stronger transparency requirements for dental plans, including dental loss ratio reporting. Better reporting would help policymakers and patients see how premium dollars are being spent and how much Medicaid funding reaches actual dental care.
Medicaid improvements represented another major focus. The ADA called for comprehensive adult dental coverage, increased federal matching rates for dental services, and stronger oversight to ensure funds support patient care.
The letter also encouraged lawmakers to protect tax policies that help families manage dental and health costs, such as Health Savings Accounts and Flexible Spending Accounts. At the same time, it warned against new taxes on dental services or employer-sponsored benefits that could raise costs for patients and small dental practices.
“We encourage the Committee to ensure that any proposals to address rising costs follow these recommendations and fully integrate oral health into national health policy,” the letter concluded. “The ADA and our member dentists stand ready to support the Committee as you review cost drivers and consider reforms related to dental benefits, public programs, and tax policy.”
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