CSPD Welcomes State Budget Agreement Protecting Medi-Cal Dental Funding for Children

Dear CSPD Members,
 
In a significant win for California's children and the dentists who serve them, the California Legislature and Gov. Gavin Newsom reached an agreement Friday evening on a 2026-27 state budget that protects Medi-Cal Dental funding, including the Proposition 56 supplemental payments, for another year.
 
Originally set to take effect July 1, 2026, the proposed elimination of the Prop 56 supplemental payments is now delayed until July 1, 2027. This preserves the enhanced reimbursement that makes it financially viable for pediatric dentists to treat children enrolled in Medi-Cal, the program covering more than half of the state's kids.
 
"We're grateful to the legislators and the Administration who recognized what was at stake for California's children," said Natalie Vander Kam, DDS, President of the California Society of Pediatric Dentistry. "The Prop 56 payments aren't an abstraction. They're the difference between a child finding a dentist who can see them and a family being turned away. We made that case, and we were heard. But a one-year delay is not stability. Pediatric practices make staffing and capacity decisions years in advance, and the constant threat of these cuts is already pushing providers out of the program. California's children need a durable commitment, not an annual reprieve."
 
With this agreement, pediatric dentists have room to keep their doors open to the state's most vulnerable young patients, but the work is far from finished. CSPD will continue advocating to make these supplemental payments permanent and to ensure that, if cuts ever become unavoidable, children's dental benefits are protected and restored first.
 
Many thanks to our PPA chair, Evelyne Vu Tien, our lobbyist, Chad, and all of our members who spoke out.
 
We are making a difference!
 
Natalie Vander Kam, DDS
President, California Society of Pediatric Dentistry