WASHINGTON – With 115,000 children in the Hudson Valley lacking dental insurance, U.S. Senator Charles Schumer Wednesday said he would back legislation proposed by Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio that would provide grants to community health centers to expand dental care and offer tax credits to dentists who treat Medicaid, CHIP and uninsured patients.

The Greater Hudson Valley Family Health Center operates a dental clinic that is taxed to the limit, said spokesman Kenneth Mackintosh.

“Here in Newburgh, the Greater Hudson Valley Family Health Center has been providing dental care for 14 years and almost from day one, we’ve been at our capacity with a long waiting list for service,” he said. “Any program that will expand access to care for the uninsured and the under insured is both welcome and sorely needed. The consequences of inadequate oral care, poor nutrition, immune deficiency, increased vulnerability to other infectious disease, are very serious.”

Schumer said the kids who need dental care the most – those who live in cities, rural towns and small, underserved communities – “are being left out by a system that is plagued by rising health insurance costs and a limited number of dentists to provide care.”