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[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3080 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

106th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 3080

To amend the Public Health Service Act to provide for the establishment 
       of a coordinated program to improve preschool oral health.

_______________________________________________________________________

                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           September 20, 2000

   Mr. Hatch introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
   referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL

 
To amend the Public Health Service Act to provide for the establishment 
       of a coordinated program to improve preschool oral health.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Early Childhood Oral Health 
Improvement Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) Although tooth decay is largely preventable, effective 
        public health programs that promote prevention should include 
        toddlers and preschool children because tooth decay has been 
        established as an oral disease process in children during 
        toddler and preschooler years.
            (2) Preschool children may suffer significant dental and 
        oral disease yet many preschool children do not have access to 
        oral health prevention programs. These children can benefit 
        from a public health program that improves access to care and 
        promotes oral health and dental care.
            (3) Dental decay remains the single most common chronic 
        preventable disease of childhood with the overwhelming majority 
        of decay localized in a minority of children.
            (4) Vulnerable children have far more dental disease. 
        Thirty percent of preschoolers with family incomes under 133 
        percent of the official Federal poverty line have visible tooth 
        decay while only 12 percent of those preschoolers above this 
        level have such decay. The Head Start program reports that over 
        \3/4\ (76 percent) of children enrolled in the program needed 
        dental care in 1998.
            (5) Preschoolers also suffer other oral health problems 
        that could either be prevented or better managed with a focus 
        on preschooler oral health. These include trauma, infections, 
        and developmental problems.
            (6) The opportunity for prevention through dental visits 
        can be improved. Although currently the number of dental visits 
        by preschool children is increasing, Federal data show that 
        only 1-in-5 (21.5 percent) preschoolers in the United States 
        had a dental visit in 1996 (Medical Panel Expenditure Survey of 
        1996).
            (7) Children suffer from poor oral health primarily because 
        of a lack of education and prevention. Minority preschoolers 
        are over 1.5 times more likely to have such a visit than 
        nonminority children (National Health Interview Survey 1996).
            (8) Early childhood oral education efforts have been used 
        in some States with good success but their application is 
        varied.
            (9) Dental disease in young children is a significant 
        public health problem that must be addressed as part of a 
        coordinated, inter-agency strategy that will help States and 
        localities reduce this preventable problem.

SEC. 3. COORDINATED PROGRAM TO IMPROVE PEDIATRIC ORAL HEALTH.

    Part B of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 243 et seq.) is 
amended by adding at the end the following:

``SEC. 320A. COORDINATED PROGRAM TO IMPROVE PEDIATRIC ORAL HEALTH.

    ``(a) In General.--The Secretary, acting through the Administrator 
of the Health Resources and Services Administration, shall establish a 
program to fund innovative oral health activities that improve the oral 
health of children under 6 years of age who are eligible for services 
provided under a Federal health program, to increase the utilization of 
dental services by such children, and to decrease the incidence of 
early childhood and baby bottle tooth decay.
    ``(b) Grants.--The Secretary shall award grants to or enter into 
contracts with public or private nonprofit schools of dentistry or 
accredited dental training institutions or programs, community dental 
programs, and programs operated by the Indian Health Service (including 
federally recognized Indian tribes that receive medical services from 
the Indian Health Service, urban Indian health programs funded under 
title V of the Indian Health Care Improvement Act, and tribes that 
contract with the Indian Health Service pursuant to the Indian Self-
Determination and Education Assistance Act) to enable such schools, 
institutions, and programs to develop programs of oral health 
promotion, to increase training of oral health services providers in 
accordance with State practice laws, or to increase the utilization of 
dental services by eligible children.
    ``(c) Distribution.--In awarding grants under this section, the 
Secretary shall, to the extent practicable, ensure an equitable 
national geographic distribution of the grants, including areas of the 
United States where the incidence of early childhood dental decay is 
highest.
    ``(d) Authorization of Appropriations.--There is authorized to be 
appropriated to carry out this section, $10,000,000 for each of fiscal 
years 2001 through 2003.''.
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