The Florida Legislature votes today on the state budget, the only bill the Florida Constitution requires that it pass. The record $117 billion budget includes $2 million in recurring funding to promote oral health and support students studying dentistry. The funding is to implement a Dental Student Loan Repayment Program, to encourage graduating dentists to practice in Florida and serve low-income patients in rural and underserved areas. .
More behavioral-health providers may be enticed to move to New Mexico after a bill passed by the Legislature this year made treatment for behavioral health and substance abuse easier to access. Starting next year, insurance companies won t be allowed to apply limitations on these services. It comes at a time when new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show the percentage of high school students who said they feel persistently "sad" or "hopeless" increased between 2011 and 2021. .
Feeling drowsy during the day isn t the only problem associated with getting too little sleep, which is the case for nearly one-third of U.S. adults, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The agency also reported that insufficient sleep puts people at greater risk for chronic health conditions, including heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, obesity and depression - not to mention accidents caused by sleepiness. .
After holding a free charitable dental clinic in West Palm Beach, members of the Florida Dental Association Foundation write that the Legislature can help thousands of Floridians receive dental care and avoid long drives to free clinics like this just by funding dental student loan repayment and donated dental services programs.