Dental insurance, a successful model facing new challenges.

Dental insurance has been the fastest growing fringe benefit during the 70s. Further, it has evolved into a cost-effective means for getting more people to seek dental treatment. Early worries of the purchaser and the profession about the uninsurability of dental care have largely been solved; to this day, though, no one has developed a model to successfully deliver individual coverage. In the 80s, dental insurance is facing some significant new challenges, mainly because purchasers of care perceive the need to trim all health care costs due to the rapid escalation of medical and hospital costs. Two avenues being pursued are "alternative delivery" and a "health tax" on fringe benefits. These two cost-containment efforts significantly threaten both the form and growth of dental insurance. It is important that the profession recognize the significance of these challenges and, recognizing the causes, become involved in finding solutions that do not diminish the quality of dental care.