A Health Systems Agency and a Fluoridation Campaign

Abstract

HE purpose of this paper is dual: first to recount the experience and activities of the Hudson Health Systems Agency's involvement in a public health issue that had I _ 5 become highly political; and second, to demonstrate that a Health Systems Agency can and should become 9 Z,0c d Q. involved in controversial public issues by taking an educational approach in preparing the public to make informed decisions. Health Systems Agencies were established under the National Health Planning and Resources Development Act of 1974, Public Law 93-641. The intent of the law is to improve the quality of health care, to make health care available and accessible to all, and to restrain rising health costs. The Hudson Health Systems Agency is an independent not-for-profit agency whose thirty-member Board of Directors is consumer-dominated. The annual operating budget of the Agency is $460,000, with a professional staff of thirteen. The Agency's federal mandate is to develop a health systems plan that will make high-quality care accessible to all citizens of Hudson County. Since fluoridation is an extremely cost-effective preventive practice for improving oral health, particularly in a highly urbanized environment, its absence is a serious health care deficiency. Accordingly, the provision of fluoridated water to the entire population was chosen as the priority goal in both the oral health and prevention components of the Health Systems Plan. Objectives and actions for achievement of this goal were developed in the Annual Implementation Plan. Jersey City is the largest city in Hudson County and the second largest city in the state of New Jersey. Its geographic area is nineteen square miles and located directly across the Hudson River from Manhattan. With a population of approximately 250,000, it is the most densely populated standard metropolitan statistical area in the nation.