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American Dental Education Association
Volume 2, No. 16, June 30, 2021
ADEA Advocacy in Action
This appears weekly in the ADEA Advocate to summarize and provide direct links to recent advocacy actions taken by ADEA. Please let us know what you think and how we might improve its usefulness.
Issues and Resources
• NHSC Service Loan Repayment Program user guide [ [link removed] ] and application portal [ [link removed] ]
• HRSA Faculty Loan Repayment Program user guide [ [link removed] ] and application portal [ [link removed] ]
• ADEA memo [ [link removed] ] regarding vaccines at the state level
• ADEA report [ [link removed] ] on the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on U.S. Dental Schools
• ADEA policy brief [ [link removed] ] regarding overprescription of antibiotics
• For a full list of ADEA memos, briefs and letters click here [ [link removed] ] .
Supreme Court Upholds the Affordable Care Act
The U.S. Supreme Court upheld [ [link removed] ] the Affordable Care Act (ACA) for the third time. The Court threw out the case of California et al. v. Texas et al. on the basis that the plaintiffs did not have the standing to file the lawsuit. The vote was 7 to 2, with the majority opinion written by Justice Stephen Breyer. Chief Justice John Roberts as well as Justices Clarence Thomas, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett rounded out those voting in the majority.
“To have standing, a plaintiff must ‘allege personal injury fairly traceable to the defendant’s allegedly unlawful conduct and likely to be redressed by the requested relief,’” but “No plaintiff has shown such an injury,” the Court said. Specifically, Texas and other objecting Republican-dominated states were not required to pay anything under the mandate provision and thus, had no standing to bring the challenge to court.
Justices Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch dissented. They would have struck down the most popular parts of the law, including the provision barring discrimination based on preexisting medical conditions.
The Court only ruled on the standing issue. The underlying issues that brought the case to the Supreme Court, namely Texas’ claim that without the penalty, the ACA’s minimum essential coverage provision is unconstitutional as well as a finding that the penalty provision is not severable from the ACA, were not addressed. Unless Congress legislatively addresses the issues raised by Texas, it is likely that the ACA will be challenged in court again.
Medicaid Reaches a Record Enrollment of 80 Million People
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released [ [link removed] ] the latest Medicaid enrollment numbers. A record 80 million people are now covered under Medicaid. The number includes enrollment in the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which covers children whose parents earn too much for Medicaid but too little to afford other coverage. It also represents a 14% increase in coverage over a one-year period ending Jan. 31. Medicaid has outpaced Medicare with its 63 million enrollees.
The increase in Medicaid enrollment [ [link removed] ] is attributed to pandemic-related job losses and states’ willingness to expand the eligibility for Medicaid. However, 12 states have refused to expand Medicaid eligibility despite the generous federal funding matches Congress extended to the states during the pandemic.
New Hampshire Weighs Adult Dental Benefit
Lawmakers in New Hampshire are drafting their biennial budget [ [link removed] ] and have yet to reach agreement regarding the inclusion of an adult dental benefit under Medicaid. The New Hampshire State Senate supports the proposed benefit and anticipates that it would cost a projected $7 million per year. However, the state House of Representatives said it never received a bill from the Senate that included the adult dental benefit, resulting in a lack of action in the House.
In 2019, the governor signed legislation [ [link removed] ] expanding the state’s Medicaid program to include dental benefits, but the new mandate was never funded. Advocates have been pushing lawmakers to support the program; specifically, they have highlighted the challenges Americans with disabilities have to accessing dental care. The issue of funding the program is the main sticking point in current budgetary negotiations.
House Conference Committee Chair State Rep. Lynne Ober (R) claims the real cost [ [link removed] ] of adding the benefit to Medicaid would be closer to $11 million annually, not the $7 million cited by the Senate. She also noted that there have yet to be public hearings on the proposed benefit.
The budgetary process is ongoing and ADEA will continue to monitor it.
Biomedical Research Included in the FY 2022 Federal Budget Proposal
In his fiscal year 2022 budget proposal, President Biden proposed the establishment of an Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H [ [link removed] ] ) within the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The President requested $6.5 billion to be spent over three years. ARPA-H is intended to be modeled on similarly situated agencies within the Departments of Defense and Energy. It will be authorized to hire individuals rapidly, based on a unique skillset, outside the typical civil service hiring system and pay those individuals a competitive wage for specific duration projects.
Also this past week, U.S. Reps. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) and Fred Upton (R-Mich.) unveiled a discussion draft [ [link removed] ] of a bill dubbed “Cures 2.0”, which builds on the 21st Century Cures Act enacted in December 2016. The new legislation includes the authorities needed to establish ARPA-H and would authorize more than $6.5 billion for the agency to pursue cutting-edge, biomedical research on diseases, such as Alzheimer’s and cancer.
NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins and colleagues published a commentary [ [link removed] ] paper in favor of the proposed agency in Science magazine. U.S. Reps. DeGette and Upton are accepting comments on the legislation, which are due by July 16.
A section-by-section breakdown of the Cures 2.0 Act is available online [ [link removed] ] .
ADEA State Calendar [ [link removed] ]
ADEA Washington Calendar [ [link removed] ]
ADEA U.S. Interactive Legislative and Regulatory Tracking Map [ [link removed] ]
Key Federal Issues [ [link removed] ]
Key State Issues [ [link removed] ]
The ADEA Advocate [ [link removed] ] is published weekly. Its purpose is to keep ADEA members abreast of federal and state issues and events of interest to the academic dentistry and the dental and research communities.
©2021
American Dental Education Association
655 K Street, NW, Suite 800
Washington, DC 20001
202-289-7201, adea.org [ [link removed] ]
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B. Timothy Leeth, CPA
ADEA Chief Advocacy Officer
Bridgette DeHart, J.D.
ADEA Director of Federal Relations and Advocacy
Phillip Mauller, M.P.S.
ADEA Director of State Relations and Advocacy
Brian Robinson
ADEA Program Manager for Advocacy and Government Relations
[email protected] [ [link removed] ]
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