Texas Lawmakers Consider Bill To Boost Supply Of Dental Care Providers

Texas House Representatives
2025 is poised to be a very consequential year for Texas public policy. Several major reforms favored by Governor Greg Abbott (R) that did not pass in prior sessions appear destined to reach his desk this session, including bills making education savings accounts available to all families, further reining in property taxes, and tightly restricting taxpayer-funded lobbying.
The new Speaker of the Texas House, Dustin Burrows (R-Lubbock), and the leader of the Texas Senate, Lt. Governor Dan Patrick (R), along with the Governor, have details to work out on all these issues. Still, the three seem to be working in the same policy direction.
Another, less covered matter on which Governor Abbott, Lt. Governor Dan Patrick (R), and Speaker Burrows agree is occupational licensing reform. In particular, there is agreement among legislative leadership in both chambers that occupational licensing requirements should be reformed in a way that will make them a less costly and burdensome impediment to working in Texas.
In particular, legislative leaders in Texas are interested in reforms that will make it easier for licensed professionals whose services are in demand to get to work more easily and quickly in Texas, one of the nation’s fastest growing states. In fact, a bill that would help rectify the shortage of dental care providers in Texas will be considered by members of the Texas House Public Health Committee during a hearing on Monday, March 31. That legislation, House Bill 1803, would make Texas the newest member of the Dentist and Dental Hygienist Compact (DDHC).
Enactment of HB 1803 would increase the supply of oral health care providers able to treat Texans by allowing dentists and dental hygienists who are licensed in other DDHC member states to offer their services in Texas, which is currently underserved when it comes to the supply of oral health care. The Kaiser Family Health Foundation reports that less than 29% of Texas’s oral health care needs are met by the existing in-state supply of dental care providers. Kaiser has identified 261 certified dental health shortage areas across the state that are home to more than two million Texans.