1702-12858

This proposal supports the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) to develop new resources, tools, and convening opportunities for state legislators and legislative staff designed to increase their awareness of oral health and policy opportunities adopted by other states. As an organization, NCSL represents all 7,383 state legislators and nearly 3,000 legislative staff. Leveraging its networks, NCSL will be able to transfer information about the importance of oral health, provide examples of effective policies and programs that improve the oral health of gap populations, and bring together important stakeholders with the authority to create progress in this field. Specifically, NCSL will produce print and digital publications aimed at educating and raising awareness among key state legislators and staff about key oral health issues and cutting-edge/emerging topics, create and maintain a legislative summary of state policy options focused on oral health, and design and convene a pre-conference session at its Annual Legislative Summit, and a new session on oral health at the annual NCSL Health Committee Session (taking place in Boston, MA August 2017), where health focused legislators and committee chairs can talk about initiatives and legislation in their states. New this year, NCSL will support DQF and OH2020 partner activities by producing print and digital publication(s) aimed at educating oral health professionals and OH2020 members about how to communicate effectively with and state legislators and staff about key oral health issues. $167,874 will be used to support personnel time needed to support the implementation of this work, meeting expenses associated with convening legislators/legislative staff, communications and marketing costs to develop and disperse materials, and administrative costs that support the execution of the proposed work. This proposal aligns with the Oral Health 2020 goal of inclusion of an adult dental benefit in publicly funded health insurance and the target that by 2020 at least 30 states have an extensive Medicaid adult dental benefit, and no states that currently have a Medicaid adult dental benefit roll back or eliminate that coverage.