March 20, 2013 – With an endorsement of Ballot Measure 26-151, Health Share of Oregon’s Board of Directors has officially added its support to the effort by the Healthy Kids, Healthy Portland coalition to encourage Portland to add fluoride to the city’s drinking water supply.
“Getting an early start on oral health can help a child start down the right path for overall health for a lifetime,” says Janet L. Meyer, Health Share’s chief executive officer. “The board believes that preventive care, including fluoridated water, good hygiene practices and regular visits to a dental care provider, is the best way to start.”
The Portland City Council approved fluoridation last August, but opponents gathered enough signatures to force the issue to a public vote. Taxpayers will now be able to decide whether Measure 26-151 should add fluoride to the drinking water supply.
Health Share and other CCOs eventually will also coordinate dental care services for Oregon Health Plan members. But it is concern about overall health that has led the Health Share board to endorse fluoridation.
For centuries physicians have suspected that oral health is linked to overall health. Recent research has confirmed it, with connections noted between dental disease and heart disease, diabetic complications, stroke, pneumonia and more.
Oregonians may be at greater risk for these conditions because of the state’s poor dental health. Oregon’s children don’t fare nearly as well as those in neighboring states when it comes to dental health. More than one third of Oregon children have untreated tooth decay, a rate that’s more than double the rate among children in Washington.
Improving dental health can also help control health care costs and increase health equity. Some 30 percent of health care costs for children are for treating dental disease, with severe cases treated all too often in the operating room. Poor dental health disproportionally affects people struggling with poverty. Poor children are less likely to have preventive care and more likely to miss school because of dental disease.
In more than 3,000 studies, the overwhelming evidence is that optimally fluoridated water has no negative impact on the 200 million Americans who now drink it, and that it improves a community’s dental health by at least 25 percent. It is the most effective and most affordable answer to the dental health crisis.
About Health Share of Oregon
Serving Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington Counties, Health Share of Oregon is a unique community-wide partnership created to ensure quality, cost-effective care for Oregon Health Plan members. The largest of the state’s new Coordinated Care Organizations, Health Share provides an integrated community delivery system with the objective of achieving better care, better health and lower costs for the Medicaid population and for the region.Health Share is made up of 11 founding partners: Adventist Health, CareOregon, Central City Concern, Clackamas County, Kaiser Permanente, Legacy Health, Multnomah County, Oregon Health & Science University, Providence Health & Services, Tuality Health Alliance and Washington County.
