{"id":7900,"date":"2022-04-11T22:29:23","date_gmt":"2022-04-11T22:29:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/partnersforourchildren.org\/proposed-federal-legislation-could-improve-dental-care\/"},"modified":"2022-04-11T22:29:23","modified_gmt":"2022-04-11T22:29:23","slug":"proposed-federal-legislation-could-improve-dental-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/partnersforourchildren.org\/proposed-federal-legislation-could-improve-dental-care\/","title":{"rendered":"Proposed federal legislation could improve dental care"},"content":{"rendered":"<p dir=\"ltr\"><span style=\"font-size:16px\"><span style=\"font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"background-color:transparent; color:rgb(0, 0, 0)\">Tooth decay is the most common chronic condition among youth, and youth from households that are low-income are <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/oralhealth\/basics\/childrens-oral-health\/index.html\" style=\"text-decoration-line: none;\"><span style=\"background-color:transparent; color:rgb(17, 85, 204)\">twice as likely<\/span><\/a><span style=\"background-color:transparent; color:rgb(0, 0, 0)\"> to have cavities as children from higher income households (CDC). Foster youth in particular have significantly higher dental needs and more dental problems than children not in the foster care system (Mor\u00f3n et al., 2019). 39% of youth who aged out of foster care do not have dental insurance, and foster alumni without dental insurance are 93.5% less likely to have their dental needs met (Carrellas et al., 2018). Unresolved dental problems have been shown to impede former foster youths\u2019 employment prospects, independence goals, and overall quality of life.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><span style=\"font-size:16px\"><span style=\"font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"background-color:transparent; color:rgb(0, 0, 0)\">On August 28th, Rep. Karen Bass and 13 co-sponsors introduced the\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.congress.gov\/bill\/116th-congress\/house-bill\/8118\" style=\"text-decoration-line: none;\"><span style=\"background-color:transparent; color:rgb(17, 85, 204)\">Foster Youth Dental Act of 2020 (H.R. 8118)<\/span><\/a><span style=\"background-color:transparent; color:rgb(0, 0, 0)\">\u00a0in the U.S. House of Representatives. \u00a0 H.R. 8118 would\u00a0<\/span><em>\u201cincrease eligibility for dental protections under Medicaid, providing incentives for dental providers to participate in these programs, enhancing outreach efforts for enrollment, and protecting existing coverage for foster youth., Especially in the midst of a global pandemic, it falls incumbent upon Congress to do everything we can to ensure we are providing the nearly half of a million youth in this country\u2019s child welfare system with adequate health care.\u201d<\/em><span style=\"background-color:transparent; color:rgb(0, 0, 0)\">\u00a0said\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/bass.house.gov\/media-center\/press-releases\/rep-bass-introduces-foster-youth-dental-act-2020#:~:text=Bass.,existing%20coverage%20for%20foster%20youth.\" style=\"text-decoration-line: none;\"><span style=\"background-color:transparent; color:rgb(17, 85, 204)\">\u00a0Rep. Bass<\/span><\/a><span style=\"background-color:transparent; color:rgb(0, 0, 0)\">.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><span style=\"font-size:16px\"><span style=\"font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"background-color:transparent; color:rgb(0, 0, 0)\">Despite the importance of dental care for youths\u2019 health and wellbeing, Medicaid does not cover dental insurance past the age of 20. Furthermore, only emergency dental coverage is guaranteed, meaning that the large majority of foster alumni forgo routine dental treatment that is known to prevent more serious diseases and complications.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><span style=\"font-size:16px\"><span style=\"font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif\">Here is the <a href=\"http:\/\/https:\/\/partnersforourchildren.org\/policy\/bill-tracker\/hr-8118-foster-youth-dental-act-2020\">proposed legislation<\/a>, if you would like to read it,\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>H.R. 8118 expands Medicaid coverage for dental care, provides incentives for dentists, and protects benefits for foster youth<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[86],"tags":[94],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/partnersforourchildren.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7900"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/partnersforourchildren.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/partnersforourchildren.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/partnersforourchildren.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/partnersforourchildren.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/partnersforourchildren.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7900\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/partnersforourchildren.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/partnersforourchildren.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/partnersforourchildren.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}