Legislation
LEGISLATION UPDATE ON SB 1436 (3/10/08)
The bill, SB1436 that ASDHA has been working on with AzDA will not move forward this year. As many of you know, this bill would have created the COHR (Community Oral Health Representative) and also would have opened up the settings and populations for the AP/RDH. The COHR would have taken online courses and taken some clinical training to be an assistant with less supervision in outlying, underserved areas. Although our Association wasn’t convinced that the COHR was the best solution to the “access to care” issue, we saw that supporting the amended bill would give us a chance to improve the role of the AP/RDH in Arizona. In fact, we met many times with AzDA’s leadership to discuss the terms of the bill and we thought it was moving along well. Unfortunately, some of the board members were still uncomfortable with the language, specifically where the AP/RDH or COHR could practice and what population groups they could see. So, they just decided to drop the whole thing. They told the legislature that AzDA and ASDHA could not agree on the language; however, we believe that AzDA’s leadership was truly interested in the bill’s passage, but certain members of their board were not. Although we wanted to push ahead with the AP changes this year, the Senator who sponsored the bill has been absent due to illness and was not able to submit ASDHA’s changes to AP/RDH with the time frame for hearing bills.
During a recent phone conference, Kelsey Lundy, our lobbyist suggested we develop a strong game plan for moving forward with our legislation for next year. She recommended that we network to build up broad based support from the community and encouraged us to continue to plan the AP changes we want. We are starting now to organize for next year by meeting together and improving communication between members. For more information contact President Jan Midkiff, janmrdh@cox.net, or President-Elect Jan Grutzius, janrdh@esedona.net.
Action Alert: SCHIP Agreement Includes Dental
Help Pass the Bipartisan Children’s Health Insurance Bill
House and Senate Votes Imminent
Please Contact Your Two Senators and Your Representative
This message is one of a number of e-mails that the American Dental Hygienists’ Association has sent out recently regarding reauthorization legislation for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), a federal program that provides millions of uninsured children with health care coverage. Because SCHIP will expire on September 30, 2007, Congress must pass legislation this week to extend this important program.
While we have not seen the precise language of the compromise bill that is expected to be voted on the week of September 24 in the House of Representatives and the Senate, we are told that it does include a federal guarantee for a dental benefit in state SCHIP programs. Right now, dental benefits are NOT required in state SCHIP programs. The oral health community – including ADHA and the American Dental Association -- has united in support of the inclusion of a dental benefit guarantee, and we are very pleased that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has announced that “dental is in!”
Please contact your two Senators and your legislator in the House of Representatives. Urge your legislator to vote for the SCHIP bill and let them know how pleased you are that the SCHIP bill includes a dental benefit. The contact information for your senators and your representative is listed below.
Sample wording:
I'm a dental hygienist in AZ. Please vote for the bipartisan SCHIP bill, which includes dental coverage for children, when it comes to the floor this week.
Senator Jon Kyl
(202) 224-2207
Senator John McCain
(202) 228-2862
Congressman John Shadegg
(202) 225-3462
If you would prefer to e-mail your senators, you can do so using their websites to directly submit the text of the letter: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm.
Thank you in advance for taking part in this important advocacy effort. We truly appreciate your willingness to join with others in the oral health community to support of legislation that increases access to care for millions of American children. ADHA’s Governmental Affairs Division will continue to keep you apprised of developments.
