Nussle, Gingrich talk health care, Pay visit to Iowa Central's dental hygiene training facility
Nussle, Gingrich talk health care, Pay visit to Iowa Central's dental hygiene training facility
A dentist's office may rank pretty low on many people's lists of favorite places to visit, but when a trio of prominent Republicans wanted to talk about health care issues Tuesday, they headed for the new dental area at Iowa Central Community College.
Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a Republican from Georgia, said the facility for training dental hygienists is a ''marvelous example of the use of modern technology and modern capabilities.''
He accompanied U.S. Rep. Jim Nussle, the Republican candidate for governor, and Bob Vander Plaats, the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor, to the college.
Nussle, of Manchester, said they came to ''see some problem solving.''
''There was a challenge, obviously, here and throughout the region in health care and in particular dentistry, dental hygiene,'' he said. ''And the community college stepped forward and is solving a problem.''
That kind of approach will be needed, Nussle said, as Iowa moves to create a health care system to replace a government setup that he believes isn't working.
He said acknowledging the high caliber of Iowa's current health care system will be the first step to creating a new one.
''The most important thing that we can do is recognize that Iowa has the best quality right now to start with,'' he said.
Nussle added that medical-liability reforms, creating more access to insurance and stressing preventive care will all be part of the new health care system he envisions.
But he added that he doesn't have all the health care answers. He said to get those answers, he'll rely on ''people who are on the ground floor and at the front line.'' Meeting some of those people was part of the reason he went to Iowa Central, he said.
Since leaving Congress at the end of 1998, Gingrich helped form the Center for Health Transformation, a group that focuses on transforming the nation's medical system to provide better care at lower cost.
He said researchers are finding that good oral health is increasingly linked to better overall health. For instance, he said the germs that cause gum disease have been linked to heart problems.
''Dentistry is much more central to health than people realize,'' he said.
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