Prop 56 Funding Update: Legislature Moves to Protect Children's Dental Care

Dear CSPD Members,

I'm writing with an important update on our advocacy to protect Medi-Cal dental funding and where the state budget process now stands.

I'll start candidly. When Governor Newsom released his May Revision, we were disappointed that he did not restore the Proposition 56 Medi-Cal dental supplemental payments. These payments are central to keeping dentists in the Medi-Cal program and preserving access for the children and families we serve, and their omission from the Governor's revised budget was a setback for the patients who depend on this care.

The Legislature, however, has taken a more encouraging position, a direct reflection of the work CSPD and our partners in the Save Our Dental Care and Hands Off Kids' Health coalitions have been doing to keep this issue in front of the policymakers who matter. Both houses have now released budget plans that move to protect Prop 56 dental funding. The Assembly's blueprint proposes delaying the elimination of the Prop 56 dental supplemental rates by one year, to July 1, 2027. The Senate's "Foundation for the Future" plan goes further, proposing a 15-month delay to October 1, 2027.

I also want you to know that we have been making our case directly at the highest levels, including to the Governor himself, personally. We recently delivered him a letter laying out the clinical and fiscal argument for prioritizing children's dental care, grounded in the irreversible developmental harm that untreated childhood dental disease causes and the fact that Medi-Cal is already the majority payer for dental emergency-room visits in California. And just last week, we met in person with both the Governor's Cabinet Secretary and Deputy Cabinet Secretary to advocate for our cause. These were substantive conversations, and we will keep pressing this message as negotiations move forward.

The road ahead: With the Assembly, Senate, and the Newsom Administration holding different positions, the three parties will now begin negotiations to reconcile their plans into a final budget. This is expected to unfold over the next few weeks. As the leading voice for children's oral health in California, CSPD will stay closely engaged at every step.

Here's where you come in. The Legislature's plans are a genuine win, but nothing is final until the budget is signed, and the next few weeks are exactly when legislators decide what survives the negotiating table and what gets traded away. This is the moment our voices matter most.

Please keep the calls and emails going to your Assemblymember and State Senator. Tell them you support the Assembly's and Senate's protection of Prop 56 Medi-Cal dental funding, and urge them to hold that line in the final budget. If you've already reached out, reach out again. Persistence is what moves these decisions. And make it personal: you are the ones in the operatory who see what happens to a child when access disappears. A two-minute phone call from a pediatric dentist who treats these patients every day carries more weight than you might imagine. If every one of us makes that call, we become impossible to ignore.

I will keep you informed as developments occur. Thank you for your continued membership and support. Your engagement is what gives our advocacy its strength.

Warm regards,

Natalie Vander Kam, DDS
President, California Society of Pediatric Dentistry