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Campaign 2006 Yields Potential for Dramatic Changes on Beacon Hill and Potential Opportunities for Dental Hygienists
By Charles Glick and Rosina Lucibello of Charles Group Consulting

On Election Day 2006, Massachusetts voters signaled significant change on Beacon Hill with the election of Milton resident Deval L. Patrick, the Commonwealth's first Democratic Governor in 16 years and the second African-American Governor to be elected in the nation. While it is unclear at the moment who will be serving under a Patrick administration, it is almost certain that he will have his pick of people from the health and human service advocacy, policy and delivery field in Massachusetts and even other experienced professionals around the country excited to be working in a progressive administration headed by a charismatic and dynamic leader. Time will only tell how the atmosphere and political culture will change on Beacon Hill with a Democratic Governor and a Democratic Legislature. However, it is a pretty safe bet that the next legislative session more than likely will bring significant change to the political flow in the State House and have an impact on legislative advocacy, including a new potential supporter for the work that dental hygienists perform in providing quality dental hygiene services and education.

All of this change was brought about by a gubernatorial campaign season that provided for lively and thought provoking debate on issues such as health care, education, affordable housing and taxes just to name a few. Health care no doubt stood out as a significant issue for debate among this year's gubernatorial candidates. While on the campaign trail, Governor-Elect Patrick's vision for health care in Massachusetts focused on a high quality, affordable, and accessible health care system with a control of and reduction in health care costs. In June of this year during the Democratic primary, Patrick told the Boston Globe, "I see health care as a common good-like clean air, safe streets, and effective education-and so I believe that government has a role to play in assuring that the conditions exist for the health care we all want." His specific health care proposals include the modernization of patient records management, full disclosure of health care costs and premium rate changes by insurers and a significant investment in wellness and disease prevention programs as a way to reduce overall health care spending and costs. Additionally, Patrick emphasized the importance of public health advocacy, an end to racial and ethnic disparities in health care, and an overall expansion of health care access through a combination of reforms including changes in MassHealth eligibility.

Under this new administration, MDHA and its membership have some unique opportunities to present the case for the need for modifying existing laws to allow dental hygienists to work in public health settings with direct access to a greater number of patients in need of immediate and/or preventative dental care. Patrick is on record as specifically identifying changes in the eligibility requirements for MassHealth (Medicaid) in an effort to expand affordable care - an issue that speaks in general to the goal of the state providing greater oral health care. In addition, Patrick's own health policy position paper seems to speak directly to supporting dental hygienists' direct access and expansion of care to patients and preventative dental care goals when he says, "I envision Massachusetts as a model for public health stewardship, a state that gets healthy and stays healthy - emphasizing disease prevention and wellness programs that help reduce the cost of illness, injury and disability."

For MDHA as well as every other group, it remains to be seen how well the Governor and the legislature will work together. During the election, Republicans warned of the pitfalls of "one party rule" on Beacon Hill. However, those of us in the field of lobbying have frequently counseled our clients to treat the House and Senate and their leadership as unique and equal partners in the legislative process, despite the fact that both chambers and their leaders are from the same political party. That counsel is rooted in witnessing numerous disagreements between the branches over the details of specific policy proposals and diverse set of priorities- disagreements that where designed by individuals such as John Adams, to give each branch equal power and opportunity to govern. It can be expected that there will also be a healthy amount of disagreement between all three branches of government, despite "one party rule" on Beacon Hill.

Yet in many ways when Patrick is sworn in as Governor on January 3rd, we will be heading into waters that have not been chartered for many years. Many of us in this field are used to not having the need to lobby an administration whose veto could easily be overridden by the legislature. For many years, it really was a rare circumstance when the legislature was unable to assert its will. That will likely change as a result of this election. Deval Patrick is not only the titular head of the Democratic party and supported by a significant group of Democrats in the legislature, but he is a governor who was elected by a sizable margin of voters in what is nothing short of a mandate. Most assuredly, Patrick will not resist the opportunity to address the people of Massachusetts directly if he needs to in an effort to advance his policy agenda.

As always, we encourage dental hygienists to share their stories with all policy makers- legislators as well as with those in the incoming Patrick administration to make sure they take note of this growing and important profession as well as to help further the goals of MDHA to close the gap between oral health needs and access to immediate and preventative care for the thousands of adults and children presently without access to a dentist in Massachusetts.

Of course, we remain committed to advancing the issues that make the quality of work and life better for dental hygienists and look forward to keeping you informed about relevant policy efforts in our state. Feel free to contact either of us at any time.

Charles can be reached at cglick@charlesgroupconsulting.com and Rosina can be reached at Rlucibello@charlesgroupconsulting.com.