NSU ASDA Advocacy
One of the main goals of ASDA is to protect your rights as a dental student and as a future dentists. They do so by actively supporting and opposing bills that help or hurt our rights, respectively. Because ASDA is a student run organization, it is very easy to get involved! More so, it is important to get involved so you can understand what is happening politically with your future profession.

Are you convinced? How do you get more involved legislatively? How can you make a difference politically?
- State Level Dentist Day on the Hill in Tallahassee
- National Student Lobby Day in Washington D.C.
- Write to your local Representative or Senator
- Legislation Chair or Committee

The Issues.

ASDA doesn’t have specific policies on legislation; however, ASDA is generally in favor of legislation that eliminates or reduces barriers to care and ensures that all members of the dental team are well-trained and qualified to deliver high quality care.

Student Debt

ASDA considers the growing student debt crisis a top priority and advocates for financially sustainable, long-term solutions. Strategies to protect ASDA members include:
  • Collaboration with other organizations to promote public awareness of the threat that rising student debt poses on health care.
  •  An increase in access to need-based student aid
  • Improved access to Income-Based Repayment and Public Service Loan Forgiveness Plan
  • Strengthening regulations for the protection of private student loan borrowers Read more about student debt

Read more about student debt here.

                                                                    Dental Licensure
ASDA believes that any clinical licensing examination intended to measure technical skill via a sequence of independent clinical tasks should:
  • Be a non-patient based examination emphasizing the recognition, diagnosis and treatment planning of disease, in conjunction with the treatment of simulated disease by use of a typodont.
  • Be administered in the final year of dental school. Provide opportunities for remediation, at the candidates’ dental school, prior to graduation.
  • Guarantee anonymity of candidates and examiners.
  • Be administered by examiners who have been calibrated to provide standardized and consistent scoring.
  • Not include a written examination that duplicates the content of the National Dental Board Examination Parts I or II.
  • Be offered to candidates at the lowest reasonable cost possible.
  • Be universally accepted by all state boards of dentistry.
  • Be psychometrically sound. Read more about dental licensure.

Read more about dental licensure here.

Midlevel Providers

ASDA’s policy on midlevel providers states that only a qualified dentist should perform the following functions, including but not limited to:
  • Examination, diagnosis and treatment planning
  • Prescribing work authorizations
  • Performing irreversible dental procedures
  • Prescribing drugs and/or other medications
  • Alternative dental provider demonstration projects.
Congress has repeatedly declined to fund a provision in the Affordable Care Act that would establish a demonstration program for dental therapists and other alternative dental providers. The ADA believes that any money earmarked for oral health programs can be put to better use and has made that argument repeatedly. Congress so far has agreed with the ADA. Read more about mid-level providers.

Read more about midlevel providers here.

                                                                    The Affordable Care Act (ACA)

Signed into law by President Obama on March 20, 2013, the ACA is intended to lower the health care costs and increase coverage for Americans.

Benefits of the ACA:
  • Increased funding for public health infrastructure
  • Additional funding for school based health center facilities
  • Increased grant opportunities for general, pediatric or public health dentists
  • Funding for National Health Service Corps loan repayment programs
  • CDC initiation, in consultation with professional oral health organizations, of a five-year national public education campaign focused on oral health prevention and education
Cons of the ACA:
  • An ACA-implemented 2.3% medical and dental device tax
  • This tax is not beneficial to dentist because this excise tax would be placed against dental laboratories and orthodontic manufactures ultimately leading to increased cost for the dentist and patient.
  • It may also affect dental school tuition as dental schools increase tuition to cover costs of dental devices.

Read more about the ACA here.
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More Issues.
Barriers to Care 
Ethics
Amalgam
Water Fluoridation

Links to get Involved.
ASDA Engage
AGD Advocacy
ADA Advocacy
ADPAC
District 5
Advocating the Issues




If you want to get more involved politically please contact the Legislation Chair Hanna Lee or Vice President Gregory Quattlebaum 
Committee Members: Anushka Prabhu, Julia Krek