Last Thursday, when folks who spend a lot of time following presidential campaign politics were speculating about the contents of Bernie Sanders’s upcoming livestream to his campaign supporters, Sanders made another announcement, which received little attention, but was the type of announcement that is much more representative of his long career as a public servant trying to help everyday folks:
US Senator Bernie Sanders announced Thursday that the US Department of Health and Human Services awarded $1.05 million to three community health centers in Vermont. The health centers will use this new federal funding to expand access to dental care. “We have a real crisis in terms of access to affordable dental care in our country,” said Sanders, who serves as the ranking member of the Senate Subcommittee on Primary Health. “To my mind, it is unacceptable that millions of low-income children and adults – and many middle-class families, as well – go each year without seeing a dentist.”
“Access to dental care is about much more than having a nice smile,” Sanders said. “We’re talking about people going through their whole lives experiencing severe pain, tooth loss, and infection, problems that can lead to serious, even deadly, medical conditions.”
“I am very pleased that these new federal funds will help address this crisis here in Vermont,” Sanders said. “However, millions of Americans – including many Vermonters – still do not have access to the primary medical, mental health, and oral health care they need. Congress should expand community health centers to help ensure people in Vermont and throughout the United States have access to affordable health care, including oral health.”
Thanks to a significant expansion of community health center funding in the Affordable Care Act, secured by Sanders, Federally Qualified Health Centers now serve one in four Vermonters at more than 50 locations across the state. Health centers deliver high-quality primary, oral and mental health care services, regardless of a person’s ability to pay. They also provide low-cost prescription drugs to patients covered by Medicare, Medicaid, private insurance, and those without insurance.
The Vermont awards announced today are part of nearly $156 million in federal funds to increase access to dental care at 420 community health centers in 47 states, Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico.
Even in announcing this good news for his constituents — part of a funding package which benefits people throughout America — the characteristically “never-satisfied” senator from Vermont — who himself has played a major role in legislation that funds community health centers — reminds us that Congress still does not sufficiently fund these tremendously important providers.
So, while some progressive folks on the Internet were keeping us abreast of important topics like how they personally once supported Bernie Sanders but no longer do, how he has “no class,” how he is not “being a good sport” and is “losing leverage,” he was announcing the good news that more folks who don’t have a lot of money can now get access to dental care, which is typical of the very important but not-hot-topic things he’s been working on for 35 years as a public servant.
As I’ve noted before, some of his initiatives in Burlington (such as in affordable housing) have become models for the nation, and his efforts in Washington, from championing community health centers to his leading role in the passage of veterans health care reform, directly help millions of Americans who very much need that help.
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, of course. Myself, I am not disappointed by Bernie Sanders.
I think, for example, about the kids who are right now able to see a dentist or a doctor, or whose folks can afford a home — because of progressive legislation — and the kids who aren’t yet enjoying these basic things — and could be with more progressive legislation. These are the things that Bernie Sanders ostensibly spends most of his time thinking about — and has spent most of his time thinking about and working on for a very long time.
When I think of the tedious work of legislation — the thousands of meetings and committee hearings that Bernie Sanders has participated in during his 8 years as mayor, 16 years as U.S. Representative, and 10 years as U.S. Senator — the sort of work that I personally would never have the patience for — I feel immense gratitude.
God bless him and everyone else who is in the trenches doing stuff that matters. I couldn’t care less if they have prickly personalities.