The Alaska House Health and Social Services Committee advanced a bill Tuesday that would require dental insurers to disclose how much of customers' premium dollars actually pay for dental care.

House Bill 273, sponsored by Representative Justin Ruffridge, would establish a dental loss ratio reporting framework in Alaska. The measure would require the state's 48 dental insurance companies to report what percentage of premiums they spend on actual dental services versus administrative costs and profits. The committee heard the bill and set it aside for a future hearing.

Background

House Bill 273 was introduced in the 34th Alaska Legislature by Ruffridge on January 23, 2026. The bill was referred to the House Health and Social Services and Labor and Commerce committees. The committee held its initial hearing on the bill Tuesday, April 7, 2026.

The bill also expands Alaska's existing direct health care agreement statute to include dental services, allowing patients to contract directly with dentists for set monthly fees. That framework was established in 2024 for medical services under Senate Bill 45.

Ruffridge said the bill addresses what he called an opaque industry. "You do not really know the answer to the question of the 48 offerings," he said. "You do not know really what that metric is coming in at."

The bill does not set a specific loss ratio percentage that insurers must meet. Instead, it directs the Division of Insurance to collect data, calculate averages, and make the information public so consumers can compare plans.

"A consumer who was looking to purchase a dental insurance plan could then say, listen, this plan offers, you know, a 90 percent or an 80 percent, or, you know, you potentially would not want to be investing in a plan that is a 20 percent because you would have less, you know, bang for the buck," Ruffridge said.

Heather Carpenter, director of the Division of Insurance, told the committee her agency would need to stand up an entirely new regulatory structure to implement the dental loss ratio reporting. The division currently collects medical loss ratio data for health insurance but sends it to the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for analysis. CMS does not collect dental loss ratio information.

Carpenter said the division would need at least one new position to handle the work. She expressed doubt that regulations could be ready by the bill's proposed January 2027 effective date. "Regulations are taking a long time, so I do not have a high amount of confidence that regulations would be in place by January 1, 2027," she said.

Of Alaska's 48 dental insurance companies, only three cover more than 10,000 individuals, and 13 cover at least 1,000 people. Representative Zack Fields asked whether the reporting requirement would be administratively burdensome for small plans.