Pew Charitable Trusts [to 4 July 2015]
http://www.pewtrusts.org/en/about/news-room/press-releases

Press Release
Pew: Consumers Without Banks Use Prepaid Cards Like Checking Accounts
June 30, 2015
WASHINGTON—The Pew Charitable Trusts released a report today that finds the use of general purpose reloadable (GPR) prepaid cards on the rise among consumers. In particular, prepaid cardholders who are known as “unbanked,” because they don’t have traditional bank accounts, use their cards like checking accounts. This fact is a key reason the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau should bring more safety and transparency to this market by adopting its pending proposal on prepaid cards.

GPR prepaid cards, also called GPR prepaid accounts, allow consumers to load funds via direct deposit or with cash and can then be used to withdraw funds from ATMs or to make purchases at retail outlets. Today, about 23 million adults use prepaid cards regularly.

The report, called “Banking on Prepaid” and based on a nationally representative telephone survey of adults who use GPR prepaid cards at least once a month, examined consumers’ knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions based on whether they have a checking account…

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Press Release
Pew Supports Tribe’s Expansion of the Dental Workforce
June 30, 2015
Children’s Dental Policy
WASHINGTON—The Pew Charitable Trusts applauds the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community for taking steps to expand its dental team to include a Dental Health Aide Therapist. This decision follows evidence showing that incorporating midlevel providers into a dentist’s team increases access to care. The Swinomish, a federally recognized Indian tribe from Washington state, is the first tribal community in the United States outside of Alaska to send a student to be trained as a Dental Health Aide Therapist.

Jane Koppelman, Pew’s research director for children’s dental policy, issued the following statement:
“The Swinomish Indian Tribal Community is taking an important step to address its need for dental care by training a Dental Health Aide Therapist to work with its dental team. For the past 10 years, these providers have delivered top quality and cost-effective care to tens of thousands of Alaska Native people, many of whom previously had no regular source of dental care. This action will provide similar benefits for the Swinomish people and could do so across the nation, if adopted by other tribes and state governments.

“Native Americans suffer from poor oral health due in part to a lack of available dentists: More than 2.4 million Native Americans lived in counties with dental care shortages in 2014. In addition, preschool-aged Native American children had four times more untreated tooth decay than white children, and in 1999, the most recent year for which complete data are available, 43 percent of Native American adults had both untreated decay and periodontal disease…