Taking care of Utah’s kids: One lawmaker strives to provide dental care to uninsured children

Sen. Luz Escamilla, D-Salt Lake City, has introduced another bill this session that would focus on children, specifically helping uninsured children have access to dental care.

Throughout her 18 years in the Legislature the Senate minority leader tends to consistently run bills that focus on helping the children in Utah.

“It’s always been children for me. So the drive for me to get involved in politics and a sense of justice starts with children, which, to me, is a very vulnerable community and population,” Escamilla said.

Along with her bill to help more children receive dental care, this session she also has bills expanding child care, focusing on nutrition in schools and child welfare as a whole.

The goal of the SB285 is to provide funding so that uninsured children in Utah can receive dental care. It would set up the “Uninsured Children Dental Care Restricted Account.” The money will come from existing state funds that would be redirected.

Boyd Simkins, a pediatric dentist who has owned a private practice for 21 years and is an attending dentist at Primary Children’s, has worked with Escamilla on putting together this bill.

He said that cavities and toothaches are the No. 1 reason that kids miss school along with being the top reason that parents miss work.

Why underserved children having access to dental care is so important

Escamilla shared that one of the reasons why providing this dental care is so important right now is because thousands of Utah children will no longer be on Medicaid following the federal passage of the “Big Beautiful Bill” last year.

The senator said that as they were working on this bill they wondered: “how do we increase access to care, and how we address a top reason for children to miss school.”

The dental care will be provided through the University of Utah because they have a large network and because they will be transitioning to be a provider through Medicaid.

“We’re going to help these families and these children, oral health is not a barrier to, you know, to be able to thrive in school and be healthy,” Escamilla said.

She added that if a kid is hurting physically with a toothache or something else “even if you have the best specialist or the best teachers, the best paid teachers, you’re not going to be able to learn.”

Simkins said that in the U.S., cavities are the most prevalent childhood disease, by the age of 5 years old, 50% to 80% of children have had at least one cavity that needs to be repaired.

“We are trying to create a safety net for these kids who are slipping through the cracks, so that we can essentially try to get ahead of the problem,” he added.

The dentist said that if children’s minor dental issues aren’t taken care of then they can become more major problems that cost more time and money. Dental and oral health issues can also lead to other health complications.

“Financially for the state, it’s going to be a huge win there as well, because we’re going to be doing small procedures versus big, expensive procedures. So really, it’s kind of a win win on both sides of the aisle, if you’re talking about fiscal responsibility with the legislators,” he said.

He said providing dental care for children to have things taken care of early will make it so kids have better health.

“We have to remember that these are kids and these kids don’t have control over their health in these situations, like adults,” Simkins said. “We’re kind of at the mercy of what is given to us as children.”

Taking care of Utah’s children

Children are a major focus of the legislation that Escamilla runs year after year in the Legislature. She said that being part of the minority party can be hard because it can be more difficult to get legislation passed.

“Some days are harder than other days, it’s about not losing hope and not becoming cynical, but I’m pretty persistent,” Escamilla said.

She continued: “We have to speak up for our children. And you know, to me, it’s the morally and ethically right thing to do.”

It is not uncommon for her bills to take years to develop and finally pass.

She added that it is important to make smart investments into Utah’s children and to look holistically at the life of a child.

If children are helped at an earlier age and if they have a strong early childhood education then these things can make it so there are less issues later in life.

“We need to continue working this work and it keeps me with enough energy to come here,” she said. “I trust that my colleagues have their hearts in the right place, and my job is really to communicate in a way that it resonates to them and their district.”

She added that she believes all of the lawmakers want what’s best for Utah families and children.

Escamilla’s other child-focused bills

One of Escamilla’s bills, SB214, would increase the number of child care providers in the state by incentivizing the start of more home-based child care providers.

The bill would provide grants of up to $5,000 for those starting home-based child care businesses to help cover expenses related to that business. The grants would come from a pool of $2.3 million, enough to start 1,000 home-based child care businesses.

Escamilla also has another child care bill, SB248, that would provide child care for state employees and would provide a way for a space in a Utah Tax Commission building to be converted into a child care facility. The senator has run a similar bill in the past, but says they are in a better place with this bill because there is an actual location.

Another of Escamilla’s bills is SB180, which would provide free school lunch for more of Utah’s K-6 children. She is also sponsoring SB181, which would deal with discipline in schools.