CDHP and AGD analyze U.S. Senate healthcare reform

The Children's Dental Health Project (CDHP) and the Academy of General Dentists (AGD) have both released analyses of the U.S. Senate healthcare reform bill.

However, the two organizations diverged in their perspectives on a measure that would set up demonstration projects for midlevel providers, such as dental therapists and advanced dental hygienists.

In its "call to action," the CDHP details various provisions in the bill that would affect oral health. It also asks newsletter recipients to lobby members of Congress in support of specific measures it would like in the final healthcare reform legislation that the Congress sends to the president:

• Requiring that oral health experts be included in a commission that defines what benefits must be offered in insurance plans offered through new public insurance exchanges. Currently, a bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives includes such a stipulation, but the U.S. Senate bill does not.
• Including provisions in the Senate version of the bill that support public education on oral health, demonstration grants for caries management, school-based sealant programs in all 50 states, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention grants to improve oral health, and allowing school-based health centers to use funds for oral health.
• Maintaining a provision in both the Senate and House versions that requires insurance offered through the public exchanges to include dental benefits for children.

The AGD report does not call on members to take action. Like the CDHP, it details the provisions in the Senate bill that would affect dentistry. However, it describes a provision that would set up demonstration projects on midlevel providers as a "grave concern."

By contrast, the CDHP includes the midlevel provider demonstration projects in the category of oral health workforce programs that it supports.