Susan Collins: “3 years ago, the Senate enacted and the President signed into law the Dental Health Improvement Act as part of the…”

“3 years ago, the Senate enacted and the President signed into law the Dental Health Improvement Act as part of the health care safety net amendments of 2002. This was legislation authored by the Senator from Wisconsin, Mr. Feingold, and myself which authorized grants to States to help them develop innovative dental workforce development programs tailored to their specific needs. I rise today to offer an amendment with my colleague from Wisconsin to provide $5 million for this important program next year to help States improve access to oral health care by strengthening the dental workforce in our Nation's rural and underserved communities. While oral health in America has improved dramatically over the last 50 years, these improvements have not occurred evenly across all sectors of our population. Particularly, our low-income families have been left out. An estimated 25 million Americans live in areas lacking in adequate dental services. Astoundingly, as many as 11 percent of our Nation's rural population has never been to a dentist. The situation is exacerbated by the fact that our dental workforce is growing older. More than 20 percent of dentists nationwide will retire in the next decade. The number of dental graduates by 2015 will not be enough to replace these retirees. As a consequence, many States, particularly rural States like mine, are facing a serious shortage of dentists.…”