Make Three Calls Today to Protect Medicaid Adult Dental Coverage
CT House Reconvening This Friday
Immediate Action Needed:
What: Make at least three phone calls asking our legislative leaders to preserve routine dental care for Connecticut adults enrolled in the Medicaid program.
When: By 5 p.m. on Thursday
The power of individual calls from across the state is tremendous and will make a huge difference. Do not underestimate our collective influence! Please call the list of leaders below. Our goal is to have 500 people across the state contact them by 5 p.m. on Thursday.
The threat to regular dental services for adults in Medicaid remains real unless our elected leaders hear from enough people that dental care is too important and fundamental to be cut. For background on what's happening with the state budget process, see the bottom of this article.
Call to Action 
Call at least three legislative leaders NOW. (If possible, call three or more Reps today and three or more Senators tomorrow.)
Suggested message:
1) Please preserve access to routine dental care for adults in Medicaid in Connecticut's currrent and future budgets. This coverage is fundamental to overall health, well being and employability.
2) Governor Rell's proposal to eliminate this essential health safety net program will dramatically increase healthcare costs. Untreated dental disease can result in systemic infections and is linked to many other major health problems. If routine services are cut, patients will seek emergency room care much more frequently. This is ten times more expensive than care in a dental office. Eliminating adult routine dental care also would hurt children. Mothers with poor dental health have children with more dental problems. Dental pain is a leading reason for school absence.
3) Increased federal matching monies for Medicaid should preserve current dental coverage. Dental care must remain part of the basic health safety net just as the mouth cannot be separated from the body.
4) I am willing to pay slightly higher taxes to preserve the healthcare safety net for our neighbors in need. (If you agree with this one, it will make the biggest difference of all the key points!) Please click here to see proposals for increased revenue.)
5) Thank you.
Please call or e-mail at least three and as many of the following legislative leaders as possible. It doesn't matter if you live in their district or not. But, if you do, mention it and ask others in your community to call also. Simply give your name, state your brief message and thank the person for taking your message.
CT House of Representatives Leadership:
Speaker of the House-Rep. Chris Donovan
860-240-8500 or 1-800-842-1902
christopher.donovan@cga.ct.gov
House Majority Leader-Rep. Denise Merrill
(Chaplin, Mansfield)
860-240-8500 or 1-800-842-8267
denise.merrill@cga.ct.gov
House Republican Leader-Rep. Larry Cafero (Norwalk)
860-240-8700 or 1-800-842-1423
e-mail form to Rep. Cafero
Appropriations Committee Co-Chair
Rep. John Geragosian (New Britain)
860-240-0394 or 1-800-842-8267
john.geragosian@cga.ct.gov
CT Senate Leadership:
Senate President Pro Tempore Donald Williams
(Brooklyn, Canterbury, Killingly, Mansfield, Putnam, Scotland, Thompson, Windham/Willimantic)
860-240-8600 or 1-800-842-1420
williams@senatedems.ct.gov
Appropriations Committee Co-Chair and
Deputy President Pro Tempore-Senator Toni Harp
(New Haven, West Haven)
860-240-0393 or 1-800-842-1420
harp@senatedems.ct.gov
Senate Majority Leader-Senator Martin Looney
(New Haven, Hamden)
860-240-8600 or 1-800-842-1420
looney@senatedems.ct.gov
Senate Minority Leader-Senator John McKinney (Newtown, Easton, Weston, Fairfield)
860-240-8805 or 1-800-842-1421
john.mckinney@cga.ct.gov
Please forward this alert (see bottom of page) to everyone within
your networks immediately and ask them to contact the Governor and key
legislators.
Please let us know who you contact so we can keep track of the number of calls and e-mails so we can target our ongoing efforts better as the budget negotiations heat up. Background and Legislative Update
Legislative
leaders need to hear from us again now to continue protecting these
vital health services from being cut as the Governor proposes.
She is still calling for a budget with no new taxes while Democratic
leaders believe that some new sources of revenue must be tapped to
preserve basic health and human services in a time when more people are
struggling to make ends meet and using such services. Legislators are
under tremendous pressure and it is up to those of us who understand
the importance of oral health to educate and persuade them that regular
dental care is essential to overall health, nutrition, well being,
employability and more. The regular
legislative session ended on June 3 without an agreement on a new
two-year budget for the state. Both the House of Representatives and
the Senate passed resolutions at that time calling for special sessions
to finish their work. The CT House of Representatives will convene this
Friday in special session to take up bills regarding Medicaid deficit
mitigation and bills necessary for the receipt of federal stimulus
money for summer youth employment programs. The Senate will soon do the
same. There is a chance that legislators will try to pass a budget when
they reconvene. Budget negotiations between Governor Rell's
administration and legislative leaders haven't produced results yet but
will become more intense as the state fiscal year draws to a close on
June 30. Your calls are vital. Please take ten minutes to contact legislators now. |
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Connecticut Oral Health Coalition
Fights to Protect Access to Dental Services
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A Coalition of 19 statewide and regional groups concerned about oral health are working together to preserve routine dental services in Medicaid for our residents who need them. To date, we have collected more than 2,300 postcards from residents in 151 Connecticut towns asking Governor Rell and legislators to protect these services. They will be delivered to them tomorrow morning.
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Connecticut Oral Health Initiative (COHI)
175 Main Street
Hartford, CT 06106
860-246-2644 - Phone
860-246-7744 - Fax
info@ctoralhealth.org
COHI is a broad-based coalition dedicated to
promoting oral health through increased
awareness of its importance and access to quality health services. |
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