Dental Program Expansion Gets the Ax

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Story Published: Dec 23, 2008 at 7:18 PM PDT

By Audrey Asistio

YAKIMA -- Olga Rodriguez takes her family to Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic to get the dental care they need. The clinic's dental residency program provides service for free or at a low cost to low income families. Governor Gregoire has the program on her proposed state budget cut list. The program was set to expand next year. It would have cost the state $1.7 million. Dr. Mark Koday believes with a dentist shortage already, under served areas will lose out even more.

Dr. Mark Koday tells Action News, "This is just the first part of a very long number of months of drama that will occur. We have no idea if it will be put back in or not," adding, "our hope is that we'll come back with a reduced budget. It certainly won't be in an expansion move for the next year or the next couple years, but we're gonna retrench a little bit and weather the hard times just like everybody else will have to."

The program has served close to 9,000 patients since it started three years ago. It is service that plenty of low income families rely on. Governor Gregoire refuses to raise taxes to get the state out of debt, so families like Olga's may have to find other ways to get the dental care they need. Dr. Koday is confident their existing patients will still get the dental care they need. He is looking into collecting donations to keep the program running.

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