{"id":8722,"date":"2024-01-31T22:29:48","date_gmt":"2024-01-31T23:29:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=8722"},"modified":"2024-01-31T23:59:35","modified_gmt":"2024-01-31T23:59:35","slug":"governor-signs-dental-therapy-reform-long-backed-by-badger-institute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=8722","title":{"rendered":"Governor signs dental therapy reform long backed by Badger Institute"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This post originally appeared at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.badgerinstitute.org\/governor-signs-dental-therapy-reform-long-backed-by-badger-institute\/\">https:\/\/www.badgerinstitute.org\/governor-signs-dental-therapy-reform-long-backed-by-badger-institute\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>CONTACT: Patrick McIlheran, director of policy:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"mailto:pat@badgerinstitute.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>pat@badgerinstitute.org<\/strong><\/a><strong>\u00a0or (414) 393-7077<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Jan. 31, 2024 \u2014 Hundreds of thousands of Wisconsinites could benefit from legislation signed by Gov. Evers today that allows dental therapists to practice here.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u201cKudos to the governor and legislators on both sides of the aisle who worked together to make this state a better place for kids and others badly in need of better dental care,\u201d said Badger Institute President Mike Nichols. \u201cThis is a long-awaited, great day for potentially hundreds of thousands of Wisconsinites, including a lot of poor kids\u00a0who suffer from toothaches and cavities and poor health.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1250\" height=\"853\" src=\"https:\/\/e74sq7k37a8.exactdn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Dental-therapy-for-Wisconsin-oral-care.jpg?strip=all&amp;lossy=1&amp;fit=308%2C853&amp;ssl=1\" alt=\"Female child being taught how to brush by a Wisconsin dental professional\" class=\"wp-image-49249\" style=\"width:308px;height:auto\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>It\u2019s a move the Badger Institute has been\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.badgerinstitute.org\/mandate-for-madison-dental-therapy-fact-sheet\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">explaining<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.badgerinstitute.org\/dental-therapy-a-cure-for-wisconsins-oral-care-woes\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">advocating<\/a>\u00a0for a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.badgerinstitute.org\/category\/dental-therapy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">very long time<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Dental therapists are mid-level providers who perform preventive and restorative procedures \u2014 cavity repairs, extractions, so forth \u2014 filling a gap between dentists and hygienists, especially in the 58 of Wisconsin\u2019s 72 counties with too few dental providers per capita. You can find an explanation of dental therapy\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/e74sq7k37a8.exactdn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/DentalTherapy_repor_091522_FinalforWEB.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">here<\/a>, in our 2022 book of policy recommendations, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.badgerinstitute.org\/mandate-for-madison\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Mandate for Madison<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>You can find an explanation of why the just-passed reform is necessary\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.badgerinstitute.org\/testimony\/2023-dental-therapy-testimony\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">here<\/a>, in our testimony before the Legislature.<\/p>\n<p>You can find out how dental care can be a struggle even for people in suburban Milwaukee\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.badgerinstitute.org\/a-special-need-for-dental-care\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">here<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 and learn\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.badgerinstitute.org\/video\/dental-therapy-a-free-market-healthcare-solution\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">here<\/a>\u00a0how the reform harnesses the free market to directly help about 345,000 underserved Wisconsin children without any cost to taxpayers.<\/p>\n<p>Key to the reform has been state Sen. Mary Felzkowski of Tomahawk, who spent years advocating for dental therapy. The bill that she and Rep. Jon Plumer of Lodi sponsored will make a difference for millions of Wisconsinites by bringing down the cost of smiles in our state.<em>The Badger Institute is Wisconsin\u2019s most influential free-market public policy research organization.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/www.badgerinstitute.org\/governor-signs-dental-therapy-reform-long-backed-by-badger-institute\/\">Governor signs dental therapy reform long backed by Badger Institute<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.badgerinstitute.org\">Badger Institute<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This post originally appeared at https:\/\/www.badgerinstitute.org\/governor-signs-dental-therapy-reform-long-backed-by-badger-institute\/ CONTACT: Patrick McIlheran, director of policy:\u00a0pat@badgerinstitute.org\u00a0or (414) 393-7077 Jan&#8230;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":8724,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-badger-institute"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8722"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8722\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8723,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8722\/revisions\/8723"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}