California’s 2026-27 state budget preserves Medi-Cal dental funding for another year, delaying $1 billion in proposed cuts until July 1, 2027.
Five notes:
- Gov. Gavin Newsom and the California Legislature reached agreement on the budget June 26, protecting current Medi-Cal Dental reimbursement rate levels as well as dental benefits for undocumented residents.
- The proposed cuts would have eliminated one-third of Medi-Cal dental funding and reverted reimbursements to rates established in the 1990s, according to a news release from the California Dental Association.
- The proposed cuts targeted Proposition 56 funding — which directs revenue from a tobacco tax to increase access to care for individuals who qualify for dental services through Medi-Cal — in order to address the state’s $12 million budget deficit.
- A CDA survey found that 49% of Medi-Cal dentists said they would leave the program if the cuts had taken effect. More than 90% of dentists not currently in the program said they would not consider joining if the cuts were implemented.
- CDA President Robert Hanlon, DDS, said the budget decision protects millions of vulnerable patients but warned that short-term delays are already reducing access. The CDA and its Save Our Dental Care coalition — comprising 125 organizations — said they will continue advocating to prevent the cuts from taking effect in 2027.
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