Photo by ktpupp via Flickr.
Overall, across America, about 15% of children and one-third of adults have gone longer than a year without a dental visit, federal data show.
But rates of children and adults getting oral health services, and factors that can represent barriers to access – including provider shortages and the cost of care – vary from state to state.
Soda taxes, it seems, are gaining some pop.
Voters in several U.S. cities in California and Colorado overwhelmingly approved additional pennies-on-the-ounce taxes in the Nov. 8 election in a move to help combat the nation’s ongoing obesity crisis and generate health funding. The Chicago area also narrowly passed soda taxes in a separate vote. Continue reading
Photo: A Day In Portland Maine via photopin (license)
The debate on soda taxes is back, this time in Philadelphia.
City leaders there want to charge 1.5 cents for every ounce of soda sold in a move aimed at not just discouraging sugary drink consumption but also to help fund a range of initiatives such as expanded prekindergarten and library renovations, according to media reports. Continue reading
