Dentists Express Concerns About Possibility Of Fluoride-Free Water

Here are the morning’s top stories on Thursday, November 21, 2024…

• President-elect Donald Trump has tapped Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head the country’s Department of Health and Human Services. Kennedy has promised that the Trump administration will advise all U.S. water systems to remove fluoride from public water on day one in office. But what will that mean for water, and our teeth?
• The state Legislature’s fiscal analyst is out with its first round of budget projections this week. The takeaway? The budget is roughly balanced, for now.
• Officials with Covered California, the state-run marketplace that offers subsidized health insurance, are urging residents to sign up before open enrollment ends in January.

Debate Grows Over Fluoride In Drinking Water

President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration could try to remove fluoride from drinking water, according to Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Kennedy, who has been tapped to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, called fluoride an “industrial waste” and linked it to cancer and other diseases and disorders while campaigning for Trump.

Fluoride, a mineral that helps strengthen teeth and reduces cavities, has been added to United States drinking water in some areas since 1945, but the decision to add fluoride is made at the local level. The federal government cannot decide on water fluoridation but can make recommendations for or against its use and in what concentration. Around 70% of the U.S. population has access to fluoridated tap water.

The northern California city of Davis has never fluoridated its water. “Lower socioeconomic groups that may not be able to go to the dentist on a regular basis and get the fluoride treatments or may not be able to follow the advice to brush their teeth for two minutes at a time, twice a day, morning and night, that’s a higher risk,” said Dr. Howard Pollick, Professor of Dentistry at UC San Francisco. “The communities that have fluoridation right now are benefiting from that. And if it was to be removed, as has been shown in Canada and Alaska and Israel, when that is removed, tooth decay will increase. The studies that have been shown to do that.”

California’s Budget Is ‘Roughly Balanced,’ But Deficits Could Grow Under Trump

With tax revenues from high-earning Californians rebounding in recent months, the Legislature’s nonpartisan fiscal adviser projects that the state budget remains “roughly balanced,” but spending growth is expected to drive increasing deficits in the years ahead.

That could make it difficult for Gov. Gavin Newsom to pursue ideas that he has proposed in recent months to fight back against a second Trump administration and reboot California’s sluggish economy during his final two years in office.

In its annual fiscal outlook, issued Wednesday to prepare lawmakers for the upcoming budget process, the Legislative Analyst’s Office estimated that California will face a $2 billion deficit next year, a potential gap that could be resolved with minor solutions — and one that Legislative Analyst Gabriel Petek repeatedly warned leaves no room for new programs. “The revenues are up, but the outlook ahead on that is a little more precarious,” he told reporters during a briefing. “There’s really no capacity for new commitments, because we do estimate there to be these pretty significant operating deficits in the subsequent years.”

Uninsured Californians Are Urged To Sign Up For Subsidized Health Care

State officials are urging uninsured residents to sign up for health insurance through Covered California despite uncertainty around the future of the subsidized health care plans under President-elect Donald Trump.

Next year also marks the first time these subsidized plans will be available for immigrants who arrived in the country as children and have been allowed to stay under the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy. With open enrollment ongoing, Covered California officials spoke in San Francisco on Wednesday as part of an effort to increase awareness of the state’s insurance marketplace — established in part through the Affordable Care Act — and the new eligibility for DACA recipients.

Trump’s incoming administration will likely target both the ACA and DACA — as he did during his first term in office — raising questions about how long the two programs will last and Californians’ access to the subsidized insurance plans.