Republican Senator Charles Grassley’s (R-IA) call for a financial discloser from the American Dental Association (ADA) along with other medical groups is just a start of holding corporate ADA accountable for the money it wastes and spends as a nonprofit suppressing and pushing out competition. The American Dental Association lobbies federal and state legislators to disregard legislation that would regulate the denturist profession in many states that include Kentucky and Wyoming. The ADA spends money to persecute denturists.

The ADA lobbied for exclusion of language to expand the dental health aide therapists programs to states other than Alaska in the recent U.S. Senate Bill 1790. The American Dental Association, wasted money fighting Alaska and lost; trying to prevent dental health aide therapists from providing dental services to Natives of Alaska living in remote areas. The American Dental Association lobbies to suppress dental hygienists from having independent boards and practices.

The American Dental Associations total lobbying expenditures as of October for 2009 was $2,110,000.00 reported by opensecrets.org. The ADA’s self-serving political agenda is hurting consumers by suppressing qualified competitors that provide oral health services to those with disparities. ADA works against its very own vision and mission statement by suppressing competition that has been trained and educated in providing oral health care services to those that are unable to pay the high prices charged by dentist leaving Americans without needed dental care.

Many people do without needed dental care because of high prices charged by dentist and not being eligible for Medicaid, low income programs and not having dental healthcare insurance. Corporate ADA has the power and money to change the current dental care delivery system for the better if the American public would speak out against the American Dental Associations deceiving and pacifying public relations campaign for a better public image.

Gary W. Vollan L.D.
State Coordinator, Wyoming State Denturist Association
P.O. Box 332, Basin, Wyoming 82410
307-568-2047
http://www.wysda.org

References:

137th APHA Annual Meeting (November 7-11, 2009): Denturists: Alternative healthcare providers for oral health screenings and referrals

http://apha.confex.com/apha/137am/webprogram/Session27637.html

http://grassley.senate.gov/news/Article.cfm?customel_dataPageID_1502=24413

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/08/health/policy/08grassley.html?scp=2&sq=grassley&st=cse

http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientsum.php?year=2009&lname=American+Dental+Assn&id=

What Dean et al are objecting to is not “Giving _any_ ground” – it’s giving even more ground when to date so much ground has been already given up. How much is too much? Even one has their point of too-far, and for Dean, Olbermann, Kos, and the like to say “this is too far” makes them absolutely nothing like the Tea Baggers, and it’s a deeply insulting of the Democrats and mainstream health reform groups perpetual taking progressives for granted.

This may be as good as we can get right now, it may be better than nothing, but it’s not ridiculous to say that giving too much away is simply giving too much away. Why aren’t you decrying Lieberman and Nelson with the same fervor you’re decrying Dean? The former are the _real_ naysayers, and shame on the Democrats for capitulating to them.