Effort to expand dental care to 217,000+ Mainers to be funded in budget
AUGUSTA - On Wednesday, the Legislature passed a biennial budget. It includes funding to improve dental health access for Maine adults with low incomes, an initiative from Speaker Ryan Fecteau to shift Maine's reliance on emergency-only dental coverage to a preventative dental care model to improve health outcomes and save the state money over time. The effort had received bipartisan support from the committee earlier this session when public health experts and economists agreed that the investment would save the state money and contribute to positive health outcomes for Maine people.