This is an excerpt from a member-only article. To read the article in its entirety, please login or subscribe.

One of the key players in the emerging, election-year-driven debate over access to dental coverage is the burgeoning discount plan sector. And as is often the case, all eyes are on California, where state regulators are weighing how and how much to regulate those previously controversial plans. One expert-the attorney who negotiated the only state-approved license so far for a Golden State discount plan-says the right rules could lead to a spate of license applicants, just as policymakers grapple with ways to extend access to more people.