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Yahoo
a day ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Federal cuts force families to make difficult, and potentially deadly, choices
A mother rushes into the emergency department cradling her 6-month-old baby. He is lethargic, seizing and in critical condition. The cause? Severely low sodium levels in his blood — a result of formula diluted with extra water to make it last longer. With grocery prices climbing and her SNAP benefits running out before the end of the month, she felt she had no other choice. This story is not an outlier. Pediatric clinicians across Wisconsin are seeing the real and devastating consequences of policies that fail to prioritize the health and well-being of children and families. And now, the situation could get worse. The Trump Administration's proposed 'skinny' budget for Fiscal Year 2026 includes deep and dangerous cuts to federal programs that form the backbone of public health in our communities. These proposed reductions include: $18 billion from the National Institutes of Health – stalling critical pediatric research and innovation $3.5 billion from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – compromising disease surveillance, immunization programs, and emergency response efforts $1.73 billion from the Health Resources and Services Administration – cutting access to essential primary and preventive care services for children and families $674 million from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services – threatening the Medicaid and CHIP programs that provide health coverage to nearly half of Wisconsin's children. Opinion: We asked readers about wake boats on Wisconsin lakes. Here's what you said. And as if that weren't enough, further reductions to SNAP and other nutrition support programs are also on the table. These aren't just numbers on a spreadsheet. These are lifelines. Vital services that help children survive and thrive. When families can't afford formula, when clinics lose funding for immunization programs, when children lose health coverage, the consequences are immediate and, in many cases, irreversible. As front-line providers, we witness this every day. We can do better. Our federal budget is a reflection of our national values. It should not balance its books on the backs of our youngest and most vulnerable. I implore Wisconsin's elected officials to reject this harmful budget proposal. Think of that infant in the emergency room. Think of the thousands of other children across our state whose health and future depend on robust public health infrastructure, access to care, and support for families in need. We urge lawmakers to work toward a bipartisan budget that invests in children, strengthens public health, and protects the building blocks of a healthy society. Wisconsin's children deserve every opportunity to grow up healthy and strong. Our chapter of the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners stands ready to partner in this effort. Let's move forward — not backward — when it comes to the health of our children. Christine Schindler is a critical care pediatric nurse practitioner at Children's WI, a clinical professor at Marquette University, and the President of the Wisconsin Chapter of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners. She has been caring for critically ill and injured children for almost 30 years. All opinions expressed are her own. This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Trump budget jeopardizes health of American children | Opinion
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
America's Dental Health Is in Trouble
Credit - Photo Illustration by Chloe Dowling (Source Image:) Not long ago, Dr. Suzanne Fournier saw a 16-year-old patient with a swollen face and difficulty breathing. Fournier, a dentist who practices at an urban hospital in Louisiana, had to extract six of the teen's teeth; he was eventually intubated and admitted to the intensive care unit because his airways had closed up. He survived, but Fournier is worried that there will be more children like him across the country who could come close to death because of the state of their oral health. 'I really worry that someone is going to die because they have an abscessed cavity that develops into an infection, and they won't be able to access care,' she says. In the U.S., 27% of adults don't have dental insurance, according to the most recent State of Oral Health Equity in America by the CareQuest Institute for Oral Health, a nonprofit that advocates on behalf of better oral health care. That's about 72 million Americans. By comparison, 9.5% of adults don't have health insurance. And though many children can get dental care through Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), low reimbursement rates mean that many dentists won't accept those insurance plans, leading to dental-care deserts across the country. Only about half of all children on Medicaid used any dental service in a year, according to an analysis by KFF. Now, dentists say they're worried that a perfect storm of public-policy changes could further worsen oral health across the country. Proposed cuts to Medicaid would mean that fewer people will be able access dental care, as federal government staffing purges target places like the prevention division of oral health at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). What's more, as states including Florida and Utah vote to ban the addition of fluoride to drinking water and other states consider similar bans, dentists say the oral health of children and adults will suffer. 'We are already facing an oral health crisis,' says Melissa Burroughs, director of public policy for CareQuest. 'Medicaid cuts and water fluoridation rollbacks are the two biggest ways in which the oral health crisis is likely to be exacerbated.' America has long separated dental health from medical health. In most cases, Medicare, the federal health insurance program for older adults, doesn't cover dental care at all. Dental care through Medicaid varies tremendously from state to state, and states are not required to include dental coverage for adults, though they are required to include it for children. People going onto the Affordable Health Care marketplace for health plans can't purchase a dental insurance plan independently unless they also purchase a medical health plan. And subsidies offered to lower-income families on the health marketplace don't apply to dental plans. Even those people with dental insurance coverage often find that their plans don't cover much outside of a dental cleaning and check-up. About 40% of adults who have health insurance don't get regular dental care, according to one recent survey from the PAN Foundation, a health care advocacy organization. Not having dental health care can come with major consequences. Tooth decay and gum disease can exacerbate other health conditions and lead to heart disease, low birth weight in pregnancy, and even respiratory disease. Adults who present to emergency departments for tooth pain often end up with opioid prescriptions, which can lead to addiction. If children's teeth hurt, they may have trouble eating, leading to poor nutrition; if they're in pain, they're likely to sleep poorly. The CDC estimates that 34 million school hours are lost each year because of unplanned dental issues. Read More: The Science Behind Fluoride in Drinking Water 'You can find lots of studies that find associations between poor dental care and things like pneumonia and diabetes and heart disease,' says Dr. Lisa Simon, an internal medicine specialist who started her career as a dentist and then went to medical school to focus on oral health care. 'But even if you didn't think about any of those things, how important is it to have a central feature in our face look the way we want to, and not live with pain, and be able to take in nutrition?' Simon practices in Massachusetts, a state with one of the best dental safety nets in the country, and generous Medicaid benefits compared to those in other states. But she still sees people who have ended up in the ICU because of life-threatening sepsis from a tooth infection, patients who can't start chemotherapy because they can't pay to remove their infected teeth, people who won't even let her look into their mouths because they're so ashamed. In Massachusetts, fewer than one third of dentists accept Medicaid, which is close to the national average. 'I have gone down to Haiti nine times, and I have never seen the level of decay that I saw when I worked in Florida,' says Fournier, the Louisiana dentist, who previously practiced in Florida. She and other dentists worry that looming Medicaid cuts would exacerbate the problem; when state budgets are tight, dental care is often one of the first things to go. Massachusetts, for instance, cut Medicaid coverage for adult dental care in 2010 in the aftermath of the Great Recession; dental-related visits at a safety-net hospital increased 14% in the two years after the Medicaid cuts. Fournier recently testified before the Louisiana House of Representatives about Senate Bill 2, which sought to make it more difficult for localities to add fluoride to their drinking water. (In Louisiana, only about 38% of people are served by community water systems that fluoridate their water.) The bill was voted down in committee, but bills to restrict access to fluoride have been introduced in other states, including North Carolina, Massachusetts, Ohio, and Nebraska, according to CareQuest. Bills to ban the addition of fluoride in public drinking water have already passed in Utah and Florida. Some local counties have already voted in 2025 to ban fluoride independently. They are likely influenced by the Make America Healthy Again movement, led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. He has called fluoride a 'dangerous neurotoxin' and has said he wants the CDC to stop recommending fluoridation. In May, the FDA announced that it was trying to remove ingestible fluoride tablets from the market. Read More: What to Do If Fluoride Is Removed From Your Water Dentists predict long-term and costly health problems if communities continue to remove fluoride from the water. One recent study published in JAMA Health Forum found that the elimination of fluoride from the public water supply would be associated with a 7.5% increase in tooth decay and cost about $9.8 billion over five years. Places that have taken fluoride out of their water supply have seen an increase in dental problems; in Canada, for instance, Calgary removed fluoride in 2011, saw a significant increase in cavities, and is now reversing course and adding fluoride back in. Dr. Jeff Otley, a practicing dentist in Florida's panhandle, says he noticed when his region stopped fluoridating its water in 2014. He saw an increase in the number and severity of cavities in kids. The recent ban on fluoridation in Florida is going to affect kids and adults, he says, especially because Florida's Medicaid program offers barely any benefits for adults. 'We are going to have more disease, larger cavities, and some of these kids are going to have to go to the hospital because their cavities are going to be so bad,' he says. Oral health advocates say that in recent years, the country had been making some progress in improving access to dental care. For instance, a bill introduced in the Senate in March would require Medicare to cover dental, vision, and hearing. And some states have, in the last few years, expanded Medicaid benefits to cover adult dental services. This can end up saving money in the long run; when Colorado chose to expand Medicaid adult dental benefits under the Affordable Care Act, one safety-net provider saw a 22% decrease in tooth extractions, according to CareQuest. When states increase how much dentists can be reimbursed through Medicaid, more dentists sign up as Medicaid providers, which has been shown to increase children's dental visits. But advocates say they're worried that all of this progress is now going to be reversed, and that oral health in the U.S., especially for children, is going to suffer. Read More: How Having a Baby Is Changing Under Trump 'I think we're at this balancing point where if we can keep things moving forward, there is the real opportunity for millions of people to get dental care,' says Simon, the Boston doctor and dentist. 'But we've seen this before—anytime there's a budget shortfall, dental care is the first thing on the chopping block.' The irony of this to many dentists is that providing people with preventative care can actually save states money over time. Children on Medicaid who received fluoride treatments saved between $88 and $156 each for their state programs, one study found. Water fluoridation is another preventative policy that saves money: In 2024, the CDC estimated that providing communities with fluoridated water for one year saves $6.5 billion in dental treatment costs and leads to 25% fewer cavities. But some of these preventative ideas aren't likely to go far, says Amy Niles, the chief mission officer of the Pan Foundation. 'In this country, we don't always embrace the importance and value of preventative care to prevent disease later on,' she says. Fournier, the Louisiana dentist, is relieved that her testimony and that of other medical professionals helped persuade Louisiana legislators to ditch the fluoride bill. But she still chafes at a health care system that makes it so hard to provide preventative care for oral health. 'Our goal is aligned with RFK Jr.'s, which is to make Americans healthy,' she said in her testimony. But, she says, America doesn't seem interested in waging a war on the No. 1 chronic disease in children: tooth decay. Contact us at letters@
Time Magazine
3 days ago
- Health
- Time Magazine
America's Dental Health Is in Trouble
Not long ago, Dr. Suzanne Fournier saw a 16-year-old patient with a swollen face and difficulty breathing. Fournier, a dentist who practices at an urban hospital in Louisiana, had to extract six of the teen's teeth; he was eventually intubated and admitted to the intensive care unit because his airways had closed up. He survived, but Fournier is worried that there will be more children like him across the country who could come close to death because of the state of their oral health. 'I really worry that someone is going to die because they have an abscessed cavity that develops into an infection, and they won't be able to access care,' she says. In the U.S., 27% of adults don't have dental insurance, according to the most recent State of Oral Health Equity in America by the CareQuest Institute for Oral Health, a nonprofit that advocates on behalf of better oral health care. That's about 72 million Americans. By comparison, 9.5% of adults don't have health insurance. And though many children can get dental care through Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), low reimbursement rates mean that many dentists won't accept those insurance plans, leading to dental-care deserts across the country. Only about half of all children on Medicaid used any dental service in a year, according to an analysis by KFF. Now, dentists say they're worried that a perfect storm of public-policy changes could further worsen oral health across the country. Proposed cuts to Medicaid would mean that fewer people will be able access dental care, as federal government staffing purges target places like the prevention division of oral health at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). What's more, as states including Florida and Utah vote to ban the addition of fluoride to drinking water and other states consider similar bans, dentists say the oral health of children and adults will suffer. 'We are already facing an oral health crisis,' says Melissa Burroughs, director of public policy for CareQuest. 'Medicaid cuts and water fluoridation rollbacks are the two biggest ways in which the oral health crisis is likely to be exacerbated.' Why dental care is an afterthought America has long separated dental health from medical health. In most cases, Medicare, the federal health insurance program for older adults, doesn't cover dental care at all. Dental care through Medicaid varies tremendously from state to state, and states are not required to include dental coverage for adults, though they are required to include it for children. People going onto the Affordable Health Care marketplace for health plans can't purchase a dental insurance plan independently unless they also purchase a medical health plan. And subsidies offered to lower-income families on the health marketplace don't apply to dental plans. Even those people with dental insurance coverage often find that their plans don't cover much outside of a dental cleaning and check-up. About 40% of adults who have health insurance don't get regular dental care, according to one recent survey from the PAN Foundation, a health care advocacy organization. Not having dental health care can come with major consequences. Tooth decay and gum disease can exacerbate other health conditions and lead to heart disease, low birth weight in pregnancy, and even respiratory disease. Adults who present to emergency departments for tooth pain often end up with opioid prescriptions, which can lead to addiction. If children's teeth hurt, they may have trouble eating, leading to poor nutrition; if they're in pain, they're likely to sleep poorly. The CDC estimates that 34 million school hours are lost each year because of unplanned dental issues. 'You can find lots of studies that find associations between poor dental care and things like pneumonia and diabetes and heart disease,' says Dr. Lisa Simon, an internal medicine specialist who started her career as a dentist and then went to medical school to focus on oral health care. 'But even if you didn't think about any of those things, how important is it to have a central feature in our face look the way we want to, and not live with pain, and be able to take in nutrition?' Simon practices in Massachusetts, a state with one of the best dental safety nets in the country, and generous Medicaid benefits compared to those in other states. But she still sees people who have ended up in the ICU because of life-threatening sepsis from a tooth infection, patients who can't start chemotherapy because they can't pay to remove their infected teeth, people who won't even let her look into their mouths because they're so ashamed. In Massachusetts, fewer than one third of dentists accept Medicaid, which is close to the national average. 'I have gone down to Haiti nine times, and I have never seen the level of decay that I saw when I worked in Florida,' says Fournier, the Louisiana dentist, who previously practiced in Florida. She and other dentists worry that looming Medicaid cuts would exacerbate the problem; when state budgets are tight, dental care is often one of the first things to go. Massachusetts, for instance, cut Medicaid coverage for adult dental care in 2010 in the aftermath of the Great Recession; dental-related visits at a safety-net hospital increased 14% in the two years after the Medicaid cuts. Fluoride bans are worrying dentists Fournier recently testified before the Louisiana House of Representatives about Senate Bill 2, which sought to make it more difficult for localities to add fluoride to their drinking water. (In Louisiana, only about 38% of people are served by community water systems that fluoridate their water.) The bill was voted down in committee, but bills to restrict access to fluoride have been introduced in other states, including North Carolina, Massachusetts, Ohio, and Nebraska, according to CareQuest. Bills to ban the addition of fluoride in public drinking water have already passed in Utah and Florida. Some local counties have already voted in 2025 to ban fluoride independently. They are likely influenced by the Make America Healthy Again movement, led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. He has called fluoride a 'dangerous neurotoxin' and has said he wants the CDC to stop recommending fluoridation. In May, the FDA announced that it was trying to remove ingestible fluoride tablets from the market. Dentists predict long-term and costly health problems if communities continue to remove fluoride from the water. One recent study published in JAMA Health Forum found that the elimination of fluoride from the public water supply would be associated with a 7.5% increase in tooth decay and cost about $9.8 billion over five years. Places that have taken fluoride out of their water supply have seen an increase in dental problems; in Canada, for instance, Calgary removed fluoride in 2011, saw a significant increase in cavities, and is now reversing course and adding fluoride back in. Dr. Jeff Otley, a practicing dentist in Florida's panhandle, says he noticed when his region stopped fluoridating its water in 2014. He saw an increase in the number and severity of cavities in kids. The recent ban on fluoridation in Florida is going to affect kids and adults, he says, especially because Florida's Medicaid program offers barely any benefits for adults. 'We are going to have more disease, larger cavities, and some of these kids are going to have to go to the hospital because their cavities are going to be so bad,' he says. Out-of-reach solutions Oral health advocates say that in recent years, the country had been making some progress in improving access to dental care. For instance, a bill introduced in the Senate in March would require Medicare to cover dental, vision, and hearing. And some states have, in the last few years, expanded Medicaid benefits to cover adult dental services. This can end up saving money in the long run; when Colorado chose to expand Medicaid adult dental benefits under the Affordable Care Act, one safety-net provider saw a 22% decrease in tooth extractions, according to CareQuest. When states increase how much dentists can be reimbursed through Medicaid, more dentists sign up as Medicaid providers, which has been shown to increase children's dental visits. But advocates say they're worried that all of this progress is now going to be reversed, and that oral health in the U.S., especially for children, is going to suffer. 'I think we're at this balancing point where if we can keep things moving forward, there is the real opportunity for millions of people to get dental care,' says Simon, the Boston doctor and dentist. 'But we've seen this before—anytime there's a budget shortfall, dental care is the first thing on the chopping block.' The irony of this to many dentists is that providing people with preventative care can actually save states money over time. Children on Medicaid who received fluoride treatments saved between $88 and $156 each for their state programs, one study found. Water fluoridation is another preventative policy that saves money: In 2024, the CDC estimated that providing communities with fluoridated water for one year saves $6.5 billion in dental treatment costs and leads to 25% fewer cavities. But some of these preventative ideas aren't likely to go far, says Amy Niles, the chief mission officer of the Pan Foundation. 'In this country, we don't always embrace the importance and value of preventative care to prevent disease later on,' she says. Fournier, the Louisiana dentist, is relieved that her testimony and that of other medical professionals helped persuade Louisiana legislators to ditch the fluoride bill. But she still chafes at a health care system that makes it so hard to provide preventative care for oral health. 'Our goal is aligned with RFK Jr.'s, which is to make Americans healthy,' she said in her testimony. But, she says, America doesn't seem interested in waging a war on the No. 1 chronic disease in children: tooth decay.
Cision Canada
3 days ago
- Business
- Cision Canada
HomeEquity Bank launches powerful new series featuring real Customers and their inspiring stories of living 55 & Better!
TORONTO, June 5, 2025 /CNW/ - In celebration of Ontario Seniors Month, HomeEquity Bank is proud to launch a new series featuring real customers sharing their personal stories of the powerful impact of choosing a CHIP Reverse Mortgage. These stories, shared by the customers themselves, spotlight the very real and very human decisions aging Canadians face when it comes to aging in place. The "55 & Better" series features video interviews and personal stories of Canadians who have tapped into the equity and savings in their home and transformed the way they live in their retirement years. From managing rising costs, to starting a living legacy for family, to taking a dream vacation, these HomeEquity Bank clients are living the lives they envisioned and sharing their impactful experiences. "Speaking to our customers directly helps me connect more deeply to our purpose. For so many Canadians 55 and better, their home isn't simply a place to live. It represents the life they've built, and their desire to maintain their empowerment, dignity, and independence as they age – which is exactly our purpose at HomeEquity Bank. Their home is the foundation of their dreams for their future," says Katherine Dudtschak, President and CEO of HomeEquity Bank. "These stories shine a light on the proactive, confident choices our clients are making to create peace of mind and realize the vision they have for their golden years. These are powerful, personal stories of people who are charting their own paths forward, without compromise. It's a privilege to share them." Click here to watch the "55 & Better" series: Why Now? With more Canadians than ever entering retirement age, questions about how they can be empowered to age in place with financial independence are becoming increasingly urgent. Ontario Seniors Month is a time to celebrate the contributions of older adults, and to elevate their voices and experiences. The "55 & Better" series brings forward authentic, inspiring stories about how Canadians 55+ are accessing the savings they have built in their homes, to take control of their retirement finances and live the retirement they deserve, while staying in the homes they love. Accessing the equity and savings they have in their home is a sound financial tool available internationally, and a mainstream solution that covers the gap of limited retirement income or access to liquid capital in our golden years. Canadians do not fit the outdated stereotype of a reverse mortgage client; they are savvy, vibrant and active and are planning for life as they dreamed it. We know that almost 9 in 10 recently funded HomeEquity Bank client agree that having a CHIP Reverse Mortgage has provided them with a sense of freedom. In-home care is another driving factor, as Canadians are looking to stay their homes rather than move to assisted living or care facilities. These personal accounts offer an inspiring and timely perspective at a time when more than 90 per cent of Canadians 45+ say they want to stay in their homes as they age. The series launched June 5, 2025, with new stories released weekly throughout the month across digital platforms, newsletters, and social media. Viewers will meet real people who chose financial independence and dignity and discovered what it means to live the lives they want, in the homes they love thanks to HomeEquity Bank. Speaking to and staying close to our customers ensures we are continually refining the standard of excellence in serving the Canadian 55 plus demographic. Our purpose goes far beyond the reverse mortgage solution: we offer access to a lifestyle our customers have earned, through the investments they've made in their home. HomeEquity Bank is a Schedule 1 Canadian Bank offering a range of reverse mortgage solutions including the flagship CHIP Reverse Mortgage™ product. The company was founded more than 35 years ago to address the financial needs of Canadians who wanted to access the equity of their top asset – their home. The Bank is committed to empowering Canadians aged 55 plus to live the retirement they deserve, in the home they love. HomeEquity Bank is a portfolio company of Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board, a global investor that delivers retirement income for 340,000 current and retired teachers in Ontario. For more information, visit
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Hawley says Trump told him ‘no Medicaid benefit cuts'
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), who has pushed back against a House proposal to reduce Medicaid spending by hundreds of billions of dollars, says President Trump told him Monday that the final bill encompassing his domestic agenda will not include any cuts to Medicaid benefits. 'Just had a great talk with President Trump about the Big, Beautiful Bill. He said again, NO MEDICAID BENEFIT CUTS,' Hawley posted on the social platform X. That post appeared to prompt a response from Texas Rep. Chip Roy (R), a vocal proponent of adding additional deficit-reducing reforms to the reconciliation bill, who argued that Medicaid needs to stop subsidizing able-bodied adults. 'Just had a great talk with my kids. They said again, STOP BORROWING MONEY TO PROP UP WASTEFUL SPENDING & TO SUBSIDIZE THE ABLE-BODIED OVER THE VULNERABLE,' Roy posted. The Congressional Budget Office estimated on a preliminary basis that the House bill would cut gross Medicaid and State Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) by more than $800 billion over 10 years and reduce Medicaid enrollment by 10.3 million people, according to the Center for Children and Families at Georgetown University's McCourt School of Public Policy. Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) have also raised concerns about the potential impact of Medicaid spending cuts on constituents and rural hospitals. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
