Jun 30 2009
Some homeless teenagers in Colorado are getting dental work done for free as part of the economic stimulus that has expanded service to more poor and uninsured, The Associated Press reports.
"The 20 runaway youths living at the Urban Peak shelter had no regular dental care until this spring, when a $1.3 million stimulus grant to a community health center paid for a mobile dental and medical clinic to visit once a month. The residents now get medical and dental screenings, and cavities filled, right from their shelter's parking lot."
"From the Colorado homeless shelter to rural Pennsylvania clinics that can accept new patients, health centers that serve the poor are among the first places the federal stimulus package is being spent. The stimulus law sets aside $2.5 billion for free and low-cost health clinics, and a big chunk of it - about $500 million - is already being spent. The White House has promised another burst of money this summer."
The money is aimed at keeping clinics' doors open as the number of uninsured grows with a widening recession and loss of jobs (Wyatt, 6/29).
 This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
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