Senator Cardin’s boastful public statement from August 18, 2011.
Maryland Ranks First In Providing Child Dental Care
Armando TrullAugust 18, 2011 - Four years ago, 12-year-old Diamonte Driver from Prince George's County died from a brain infection created by an abscessed tooth because his mother was unable to get him adequate dental care. This death spurred Maryland to address this inadequacy, and now, things in the state are vastly different.
Maryland was ranked first in providing dental care for children in a recent Pew Center study.
Courtesy of: http://www.flickr.com/photos/melissaclark/3740210248/
Maryland now ranks first in the nation in the dental care it provides its children, according to a report by the Pew Center. This achievement was brought about by a coalition of dentists working together with county, state and federal agencies to streamline access to Medicaid for eligible families as well as payments to providers.
Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin (D) this week visited the Kool Smiles clinic in District Heights, one of eight clinics throughout Maryland that works with low income patients, to celebrate the ranking.
"It didn't take government money to set up this facility but they needed to make sure they were going to get paid for the people who used the facility and too many families could not afford this," he says. "That's why we changed the law to say we wanted to provide coverage particularly for our children."
Camiller Broson says this approach has made dental care for her two children a lot more accessible.
"You know you have to pay out of pocket but with Kool Smiles, you don't have to," she says. "They make arrangements with you and work it out. It's truly a blessing."
State health officials are exploring other ways to increase access to dental care, ranging from mobile clinics that visit schools to more education and outreach.
Pew didn’t say it was quality treatment, just treatment!!! Has anyone ever studied exactly what state delivers the best quality of treatment or any will any kind of treatment do? Hellooooo out there…. anyone?
Senator Cardin:
Have you checked to see exactly what Kool Smiles is doing to these children?
How much Medicaid fraud they are committing?
How many children they are unnecessarily tortured to deliver that fantastic treatment? However the number look good don’t they, Senator Cardin?
All those root canals and crowns billed make it appear children’s teeth are in horrible condition, but is that really the case? What if you were told 45% of the treatment billed was from “creative dentistry”. You know their favorite victim is under 5 years of age, easy to strap in papoose boards, hard for child to explain to mom or dad what happened, teeth soon to fall out leaving little to no evidence, and my personal favorite-bottle rot. I say it’s BS!
It’s all about the numbers isn’t it, Senator Cardin? With no regard to any type of quality of care these children receive. It might not be a bad idea to see all 7 reports on Kool Smiles; videos at the bottom of this post, the latest one was this week!One child’s death has been used over and over by Wall Street and agencies as a deflection to public scrutiny of corporation practicing dentistry. Diamonte’s name has been exploited by numerous corporation, agencies and lawmakers to put money in their pockets and feather in their caps. [SHAMEFUL!]
It’s not even close to being about delivering needed quality care to the children! Lawmakers are allowing this to happen to children across the US in order to step upon a podium and brag that they are taking care of the babies, but what they are really doing is subjecting the babies to irreparable harm!Not one lawmaker, Wall Street firm or corporation has used these children’s names to put safeguards in place to protect them from careless dental treatment? Why?
Is it because no fat cat Wall Street greedy bankers would profit? These children died too! All 36 of them!
36 Miciah Bonzani PA 2011
35 Jennifer Michelle Olenick MD 2011
34 Christopher Schutzius IL 2011
33 Marissa Kingery OH 2011
32 Akasmse Rose Tecumseh OK 2010
31 David Liddell GA 2010
30 Dylan S. Stewart FL 2010
29 Jacobi Hill VA 2010
28 Maddoux Cordova TX 2009
27 Cory Moore, Jr. FL 2009
26 Chanel Broomfield AZ 2009
25 Jacqueline Martinez CA 2008
24 Raven Blanco VA 2007
23 Jenna Bautista CA 2007
22 Jonathan Barrera AZ 2006
21 Diamond Brownridge IL 2006
20 Jessenia Valles TX 2006
19 Dasia Washington FL 2006
18 Rogelio Crespo CA 2005
17 Sherral Magana CA 2005
16 Hunter Owens OH 2004
15 Torrie Price CA 1999
14 Bob Price CA 1999
13 Monique Walker NY 1997
12 Javier Villa CA 1997
11 Milton Danao Il 1997
10 Claresha P. Harrison GA 1996
09 Benjamin R. Shimshock CA 1996
08 Jonathan Walski PA 1996
07Mark Bistany NY 1993
06 Jenny Crenshaw FL 1989
05 Rifa Setiyono NY 1986
04 Anthony Jones Jr. OH 1985
03 Johnny Gray CA 1984
02 Christina Pounds PA 1983
01 William Kimberly NY 1974
