The ADA represents 157,000 dentist members and works to advance dentistry and advocates for issues related to oral health, especially access to dental care.
What They Want
The ADA's top priority for health care reform legislation is an increase in funding for dental Medicaid. "When it comes to access to dental care in this country, it's low income Americans that are facing the biggest struggle," said Bill Prentice, director of the ADA's Washington office. "We'd like to see the federal government step up more."
Currently, a provision related to dental Medicaid is not included in proposed legislation. "We're working to get that fixed," Prentice said.
The ADA would also like to ensure that insurance reforms apply to stand-alone dental plans, as well as the larger all-encompassing health insurance options.
Deal Breakers
The ADA is apprehensive about inclusion of a government-sponsored insurance option and an employer mandate in health care reform legislation.
"Like a lot of folks, we have some concerns bout the ramifications of the public plan option, depending on how it would be constructed," Prentice said, citing the possible impact on the private insurance market.
Because dental offices are often small businesses, Prentice said the ADA worries that an employer mandate would result in "unnecessary burdens on small employers."
The employer mandate included in the House bill would require businesses with payrolls above $250,000 a year to either provide satisfactory insurance for employees or pay a tax.
How Much They've Spent
The ADA spent $1.5 million on all lobbying activities in the first half of 2009, according to lobbying disclosure forms. Not all of the group's lobbying was directly related to health care reform legislation. In the first half of 2008, the ADA spent about $710,000 on all lobbying activities.
The ADA's PAC and individuals associated with the group have donated $530,800 to federal candidates and political parties during the 2010 election cycle and donated $2.1 million during the 2008 election cycle. This cycle, 60 percent of the donations have gone to Democrats and 40 percent to Republicans, while 54 percent of the donations went to Democrats and 46 percent to Republicans in the 2008 cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Recipients during the current election cycle include House Minority Whip Eric Cantor, R-Va., House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.
The ADA has not spent money on advertising related to health care reform legislation, but the group is considering running ads during the fall, Prentice said.
The group's total revenue for 2007 was $111.1 million, according to IRS forms.
Key Players
Prentice heads a staff of 20 in the ADA's Washington office, and says reform has been the "number one issue...over the past 6 months." He became director of the office in 2006, after working there for six years. Before joining the ADA, Prentice was director of government affairs for the New Jersey Dental Association.
The ADA's president, John Findley, has also been involved in health care reform discussions. Prentice is a registered lobbyist. Findley is not.
Friday, September 4, 2009
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Thursday, September 3, 2009
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It's interesting that organized dentistry doesn't like mandates when it applies to themselves but are behind almost every fluoridation mandate in this country - forcing fluoride down our throats whether we like it or not. If fluoridation actually hurt their bottom line, dentists, lead by the ADA, would be screaming at our legislators to stop fluoridation becasue it is ineffective at reducing tooth decay, harmful to health and a waste of meony. Instead they spend millions of dollars convincing legislators that fluoridation is a good thing when science say it is not (see http://www.FluorideAction.Net/health ). Fluoridation gives the illusion that organized dentistry cares about the low income folks they won't actually allow in their dental chairs.
We need to start educating more Dental Health Aide Therapists. It just takes 2 or 3 years. They will accept Medicaid patients and charge much less than dentists to do an equally professionals job and live in dentist-deficient communities. Despite intense lobbying and a million dollar ADA lawsuit against it, the first DHATs are working in rural Alaska where people used to pull their own teeth because no dentist would work or live there.
Minnesota recently passed a law to allow Dental Therapists to work in their state, in spite of intense pressure by organized dentistry not to. Denturists (false teeth makers) would like to work directly with the public; but organized dentistry won't have it and want a "cut" of the action although their input usually makes fitting dentures more of a problem than any benefit. Now dentists are fighting against those teeth whitening kiosks in the Malls. Dentists refuse to give up this benign treatment for the big bucks it brings to their own offices. The most blatant example of greed is by the Louisiana Dental Association who lobbied successfully for a law the forbids a Medicaid-accepting dentist from bring dental care into the schools - even though the dentists in that area won't accept Medicaid. Now organized dentistry is holding our children "hostage" until the government gives them more money to treat them. 80% of dentists refuse Medicaid patients which lead to the death of 12 year old Deamone Driver. When about a dozen dentists refused to treatment, he went to a hospital emergency room where $250,000 and two weeks stay couldn't stop the tooth infection from traveling to his bring and finally killing him.Organized dentistry has too much political power in this country. It's hard for legislators to see the past the $111 million and possible speaking engagements. Dentistry obtains most of its money from corporations that benefit from tooth decay. They have a symbiotic relationship