House Speaker Ryan Fecteau is sponsoring a bill that could help reduce monthslong delays for people who need general anesthesia for dental procedures by increasing reimbursement rates.

Low reimbursement rates for general anesthesia have contributed to long wait times for children and adults on MaineCare who need dental surgery. At times, dentists say, the waitlists can be as long as several months or more than a year.

Fecteau is getting behind an effort spearheaded by Yarmouth pediatric dentist Michael Dowling and the Maine Dental Association.

The Portland Press Herald reported last month on the issue and its impact on children with dental issues requiring general anesthesia.

“It just makes sense to do this,” said Fecteau, a Biddeford Democrat, in an interview with the Press Herald on Friday. “If we can solve this and provide dental access to children and adults who need it most, who have particularly challenging cases, their overall health will be improved.”

The Maine Legislature released titles of bills on Friday that are expected to be submitted for the 2026 legislative session. Fecteau’s bill is titled “An Act to Improve Dental Care Access for Maine Children and Adults.” Bill details are not yet available.

Because reimbursement rates are so low, dentists, who pay the anesthesiologists, lose hundreds of dollars on each procedure where a patient has to be put under general anesthesia. Since dentists are taking a financial hit each time, they have to limit the number of procedures requiring general anesthesia, the Maine Dental Association previously told the Press Herald.

That leaves a wide gap between demand and how many procedures can be done, Dowling said.

The data on how many Maine children need general anesthesia for dental work is not tracked, but the Maine Dental Association believes it’s thousands of children per year. The adult need for general anesthesia is also great, according to the association.

“This is a relatively small ask for a big benefit,” Fecteau said.

Officials with the Maine Department of Health and Human Services said last month they were aware of dental access problems for people covered by Medicaid and, in response, moved up the agency’s reimbursement rate reform for dental care by one year to 2026. Medicaid rate reforms are typically done every five years and the dental care rates were originally slated for reform in 2027.

The Maine Dental Association will be submitting other bills to improve overall reimbursement rates and alleviate the workforce shortage, Therese Cahill, the association’s executive director, said Friday.

Passing the bills would be a “game changer” Cahill said.

“Maine children and adults would see a slicing of wait times for incredibly important and necessary procedures,” Cahill said.

Access to dental care has been a longstanding problem in Maine and while the bill sponsored by Fecteau won’t solve all of the problems, it would help alleviate long waitlists for the most acute cases, advocates say.

Dowling said he’s optimistic the bill will pass.

“I haven’t come across a single person who is against what we are trying to do,” he said. “This is creating access for folks who don’t have it.”