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Position Statement: House Bill 1516 and Senate Bill 5433
Statement:
Oral health is a key component to overall health. Unfortunately, a majority of Washington State’s residents do not have dental coverage and cannot afford routine or preventative care.
Details:
House Bill 1516 and Senate Bill 5433 aims to expand the access to routine and preventative dental care for adults and children in Washington State. The bill does so by creating a mid-level Licensed Dental Practitioner within an existing doctor’s office. The practitioner will work under the direct supervision of a Dentist, providing only routine and preventative dental care.
· A majority of Washington residents do not have dental coverage; therefore they do not receive routine or preventative care. This can lead to medical complications such as severe pain, tooth abscesses and tooth decay. Tooth decay can often lead to premature tooth loss, and in rare case, serious infections. These infections, which are typically the result of an abscessed cavity, can be very costly and even life-threatening.
· Preventative care can help offset the cost of emergency room visits. During an eighteen month period in 2008-2009, Washington State residents made over 23,000 visits to ERs for dental related problems. Among the uninsured, patients with dental disorders were the most frequent visitors to the ER, with an average bill of almost $500 per visit.
· Creating a new mid-level dental provider will create new jobs while meeting the growing dental needs of communities across Washington State. Licensed Dental Practitioners willprovide affordable, routine, preventative dental careto Washington State residents, while freeing Dentists to work on more complicated issues. Currently, there are less than two thousand Dentists in Washington State to serve a population of nearly two million, with nearly a quarter that number willing to service the poor by providing discounted or pro-bono care.
Conclusion:
House Bill 1516 and Senate Bill 5433 represent a vision of oral health in Washington State where everyone has access to routine and preventative care. It will decrease the ratio between dentists and patients, while stimulating the economy and increasing the overall oral health of Washington State’s residents. We urge you to support HB 1516 and SB 5433