As Members of Congress prepare to adjourn and return home
for the month of August, behind-the-scenes negotiations over health care reform
continue to intensify. Key Senators and
Representatives are holding marathon meetings to negotiate sticking points on
cost, the public option, and a host of other contentious issues. Meanwhile, President Obama has stepped up his
efforts to sell the plan to the American people through a series of public
speeches and statements.
In all of the activity, the issue of oral health continues
to fare well. Of the six Democrats and
Republicans crafting a compromise bill in the Senate, two are some of the
body's strongest champions for oral health:
Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine and
Senator Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico. These two Senators represent a bipartisan
consensus critical to moving forward in the days to come. Further, a deal
brokered by House Democratic Leadership and a group of conservative "Blue Dog"
Democrats who initially opposed the bill leaves all of the legislation's oral
health provisions intact.
While much progress has been made, the battle is far from
over. Over the month of August, Members
of Congress will be seeking input from their constituents back home and sending
feedback to their staff in Washington,
D.C., who will continue to hash out the
details in their absence. Now is the
time to make sure that they get the message loud and clear that oral health is
an integral component of overall health and it must be included.
