Latest news with #Fournier
Hamilton Spectator
01-07-2025
- Business
- Hamilton Spectator
Flying 2C helicopter tours hopes to elevate tourism in Charlotte County
Every flight Ron Fournier takes for his new business, Flying 2C Helicopter Tours, begins with a safety demonstration – explaining the ins and outs of his Bell 206 LongRanger. 'It's one of the safest helicopters in the world,' he said in an interview with The Courier. 'It has isometric mounts on the transmission so when we have rough air it actually smooths it out.' The helicopter, which glistens a bright red in the sunlight, holds six passengers plus Fournier as the pilot. There are two tours available, one over Saint Andrews and one to Campobello's Roosevelt Island. Private charters are also available with permission to land in various iconic landmarks. 'We enjoy flying here,' he said, adding it takes about 18 minutes for the Saint Andrews tour and about 30 minutes to Saint John. 'I've been flying for over 25 years. I've got tons of hours.' Fournier has flown in various parts of Canada – but said Charlotte County's landscape could rival them all. Meeting people is a big part of the experience. 'I get to meet a lot of new people and I'm looking forward to meeting a lot of others,' he said. The helicopter is also capable of converting to an ambulance and used in fire suppression, if necessary, Fournier explained. A particularly valuable for the two islands in the region and given Charlotte County recent experience with an expansive wildfire in 2023. Fournier believes this experience only adds to the already vibrant tourism landscape in Charlotte County, while making good use of the St. Stephen airport. 'The airport, the reason it is so special … is it is within one nautical mile of downtown (St. Stephen),' he said. 'Most of the time you need to take a taxi, but here, if you get the urge you can just walk to a restaurant.' Fournier recently presented to the Municipal District of St. Stephen about the business. He explained there could be up to 5,000 passengers using his service, meaning tourism dollars being spent in St. Stephen, adding he's invested about $2 million in Charlotte County so far. The council is in the process of approving a new municipal plan that could see the airport sold off from the municipality's control, among other options. Fournier would like to see further investment in the airport, he explained to the council, including repairing the current hangars and upgrades to the runway. Mayor Allan MacEachern said there would be a meeting with the Southwest Regional Service Commission to help Fournier reach some sort of agreement. And even as Fournier begins his journey into flying the landscape of Charlotte County, he's been pleasantly surprised by the interest in the service. 'I was expecting to be sitting a lot more,' he said. 'We're averaging right now two or three tours a day. So it's actually been more than I expected.' He said with school finally out for the summer, he only anticipates that increasing. 'I'm very happy so far with the success of helicopter's been having,' he said. Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page .
Vancouver Sun
26-06-2025
- Business
- Vancouver Sun
These groceries cost 45% more from Sobeys' Uber Eats than in-store
Inspired by a La Presse experiment, I learned the cost of convenience. It's not just the expected fees that add to the hefty totals for groceries ordered via food delivery apps, though. Overall, ordering from Sobeys' Uber Eats storefront was 45 per cent more expensive than shopping IRL. My bill jumped from $73.16 at a Toronto brick-and-mortar Sobeys location to $105.88 via the delivery app. Bag, service and delivery fees, tip and taxes notwithstanding, my items cost 16 per cent more in-app, and the on-shelf sales applied only two-thirds of the time. Discover the best of B.C.'s recipes, restaurants and wine. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of West Coast Table will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. La Presse journalist Marie-Eve Fournier's groceries increased 116 per cent, from $38 in-store to $82 from the same Montreal IGA on Uber Eats. Fournier admits she 'cheated a little' by selecting items from the flyer. My only guiding principle was choosing products I usually buy at Sobeys: chicken thighs, dried beans, yogurt, cheese, arugula, frozen blueberries, sparkling water, tortilla chips and toilet paper. Four of the nine items I bought were Sobeys' house brand, Compliments. Three were on sale in-store, two of which were reduced in-app. I added products to my virtual cart at the same time as my physical one, making sure there was plenty of stock so my Uber Eats shopper wouldn't have any issues fulfilling the order. It occurred to me as I completed my purchase that we were in the store at the same time. As I fumbled at the self-checkout, my shopper was already walking the aisles. They delivered my order a little over an hour after I placed it. Regular-priced items such as arugula, dried beans, sparkling water and tortilla chips were five per cent more expensive in the app than in the Sobeys store. Of the in-store sale items, yogurt and frozen blueberries cost 17 per cent more online, and toilet paper went up 40 per cent. Let that sink in. Call me naive, but I assumed the prices in an online storefront would match those on physical shelves. 'Join the club,' says Sylvain Charlebois, senior director of Dalhousie University's Agri-Food Analytics Lab , a colleague of Fournier's but not involved in her Uber Eats column . 'I used Instacart a few times during COVID, and that's it. So, I wasn't aware of these price discrepancies at all, and I suspect many Canadians aren't either.' According to Keerthana Rang, corporate communications lead at Uber Canada, 'Merchants are responsible for setting their own prices on their Uber Eats storefronts. Prices set by merchants in the Uber Eats app may differ from those in-store. Merchants that do offer in-store pricing on Uber Eats are highlighted with an 'in-store pricing' badge in the app, such as Metro, Food Basics, LCBO and Giant Tiger.' So, why do some retailers set higher grocery prices on delivery apps than in stores? Sobeys, which has partnerships with Instacart and Uber Eats, didn't exactly answer the question. 'The pricing on these platforms reflect different service models. In-store promotions and promotions featured on Voilà may not be applicable on Uber Eats and/or Instacart,' Sobeys said in an email to National Post. At time of writing, a Sobeys spokesperson hadn't responded to a request for more information on the nature of these service models and how they affect the prices of regular (non-sale) items. On Voilà, the supermarket chain's home delivery service, prices for the products I bought matched those in-store. 'We've grown to accept or expect that prices are going to be consistent in-store and online,' says Jenna Jacobson, the director of Toronto Metropolitan University's Retail Leadership Institute and an associate professor focused on retail management. 'But there are many, many times, even in regular retail, where that's not the case, where things may be more expensive in-store even.' A disconnect between prices can happen in other sectors, but an online surcharge is especially common with groceries, takeout and restaurants, Jacobson explains. 'It's quite a complicated consumer marketplace, and every app or retailer gets to set the terms. The power consumers have is determining whether they buy into it, whether it's worth it for them or not.' Pricing inconsistencies are just one part of the issue — there are also the fees. On May 28, Toronto-based law firm Koskie Minsky LLP filed a statement of claim against Uber Eats Canada, alleging it charges customers a hidden fee of roughly 10 per cent of the cart. The firm told CTV News that the levy is a 'quintessential example of drip pricing practices' (when companies draw customers in with low prices only to add mandatory fees at checkout). Similarly, on June 9, the Competition Bureau announced it's suing DoorDash for its 'deceptive price and discount advertising.' (DoorDash has disputed the Competition Bureau's allegations.) Allegations of drip pricing aside, I was aware of the fees applying to my grocery order before I authorized the transaction: bag fee ($1, which 'may apply if mandated by law or charged by the merchant,' says Rang), service fee ($6.99), delivery fee ($2.99) and tax ($4.82). (Plus a 15 per cent tip; $14.55.) What wasn't apparent, though, is that the grocery prices were higher. Despite my surprise, the 45-per-cent increase I experienced aligns with what Jacobson would expect. Fournier's 116-per-cent increase 'would be a lot.' Individual grocery items could cost from five to 15 per cent more online, which is also mostly what I experienced. (The 40 per cent toilet paper increase was the outlier.) Mark-ups vary across platforms, restaurants and retailers, making them challenging for consumers to detect. On average, though, they equate to 'a significantly higher bill,' says Jacobson. They can depend on the time of day or length of the delivery window. You could join a subscription model, in which you pay a set fee each month in exchange for lower service and delivery fees, or you could pay the standard fees plus 'an optional, but often expected' tip. In the case of Uber Eats, 100 per cent of the tip goes 'directly to the delivery people,' says Rang. Earnings also include the fare, which is based on the estimated distance and time. 'Additionally, in B.C., and beginning July 1 in Ontario, a government-initiated minimum earnings standard is in place, ensuring that delivery people receive a guaranteed base pay for their engaged time.' Factoring in the fees and potentially higher item prices, 'your typical delivery app order for your groceries is certainly going to have a large convenience premium,' says Jacobson. For some consumers, these premiums may be justified. 'When you're talking about grocery, there's a pretty significant amount of time that people are spending in the grocery store going around, picking their fruits and vegetables and finding the produce.' Jacobson suggests consumers be strategic: Avoid paying more for last-minute or evening delivery slots and determine which platform works best for what you need, which changes over time. Charlebois also highlights the 'sky-high' cost of convenience when using apps like Uber Eats for groceries. The ethics of the issue are critical, he adds. 'I think everyone agrees that there's a price to pay for convenience. But does that price go up when greed is involved? And when you have seniors and people that are chronically ill — they just got an operation, they're not able to be mobile for a while, they can't leave their home — they have to get their food delivered, and they're paying extra for all that.' Some people who use food delivery apps for groceries have options, 'but many do not,' says Charlebois. According to Statistics Canada's consumer price index , the food inflation rate fell from 3.8 per cent in April to 3.4 per cent in May. On June 24, ' I posted that and online, people are saying, 'Oh, my God, it's too much.' We're talking 45 per cent,' says Charlebois, referencing the price difference I encountered. 'Forty-five — for food.' Jacobson says there's 'big growth' in grocery delivery, with players such as Uber Eats offering promotions to entice people to place their first orders and move from in-store shopping. According to Statista , the revenue of the grocery delivery market alone is expected to grow by 10.8 per cent in 2026. This year, the average revenue per Canadian grocery delivery user is estimated to be roughly $753. Consumers need to know what's playing into the premium they're paying before they can make an informed decision about whether the extra cost is worth it to them or not. When I ask Jacobson who's responsible for sharing this information, she said, 'There's definitely a shared responsibility (between retailers and platforms). But at the end of the day, it's the consumer who makes the decision as to where they want to spend their money.' So, after all of this, who should I be mad at? One thing's for sure: not my shopper, who left the comfort of their air-conditioned car to haul groceries on the hottest day since July 13, 2016. Thank you for your service. Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. 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Edmonton Journal
26-06-2025
- Business
- Edmonton Journal
These groceries cost 45% more from Sobeys' Uber Eats than in-store
Article content Inspired by a La Presse experiment, I learned the cost of convenience. It's not just the expected fees that add to the hefty totals for groceries ordered via food delivery apps, though. Overall, ordering from Sobeys' Uber Eats storefront was 45 per cent more expensive than shopping IRL. My bill jumped from $73.16 at a Toronto brick-and-mortar Sobeys location to $105.88 via the delivery app. Article content Bag, service and delivery fees, tip and taxes notwithstanding, my items cost 16 per cent more in-app, and the on-shelf sales applied only two-thirds of the time. La Presse journalist Marie-Eve Fournier's groceries increased 116 per cent, from $38 in-store to $82 from the same Montreal IGA on Uber Eats. Fournier admits she 'cheated a little' by selecting items from the flyer. My only guiding principle was choosing products I usually buy at Sobeys: chicken thighs, dried beans, yogurt, cheese, arugula, frozen blueberries, sparkling water, tortilla chips and toilet paper. Four of the nine items I bought were Sobeys' house brand, Compliments. Three were on sale in-store, two of which were reduced in-app. I added products to my virtual cart at the same time as my physical one, making sure there was plenty of stock so my Uber Eats shopper wouldn't have any issues fulfilling the order. It occurred to me as I completed my purchase that we were in the store at the same time. As I fumbled at the self-checkout, my shopper was already walking the aisles. They delivered my order a little over an hour after I placed it. Article content Regular-priced items such as arugula, dried beans, sparkling water and tortilla chips were five per cent more expensive in the app than in the Sobeys store. Of the in-store sale items, yogurt and frozen blueberries cost 17 per cent more online, and toilet paper went up 40 per cent. Let that sink in. Call me naive, but I assumed the prices in an online storefront would match those on physical shelves. 'Join the club,' says Sylvain Charlebois, senior director of Dalhousie University's Agri-Food Analytics Lab, a colleague of Fournier's but not involved in her Uber Eats column. 'I used Instacart a few times during COVID, and that's it. So, I wasn't aware of these price discrepancies at all, and I suspect many Canadians aren't either.' According to Keerthana Rang, corporate communications lead at Uber Canada, 'Merchants are responsible for setting their own prices on their Uber Eats storefronts. Prices set by merchants in the Uber Eats app may differ from those in-store. Merchants that do offer in-store pricing on Uber Eats are highlighted with an 'in-store pricing' badge in the app, such as Metro, Food Basics, LCBO and Giant Tiger.' Article content So, why do some retailers set higher grocery prices on delivery apps than in stores? Sobeys, which has partnerships with Instacart and Uber Eats, didn't exactly answer the question. 'The pricing on these platforms reflect different service models. In-store promotions and promotions featured on Voilà may not be applicable on Uber Eats and/or Instacart,' Sobeys said in an email to National Post. At time of writing, a Sobeys spokesperson hadn't responded to a request for more information on the nature of these service models and how they affect the prices of regular (non-sale) items. On Voilà, the supermarket chain's home delivery service, prices for the products I bought matched those in-store. 'We've grown to accept or expect that prices are going to be consistent in-store and online,' says Jenna Jacobson, the director of Toronto Metropolitan University's Retail Leadership Institute and an associate professor focused on retail management. 'But there are many, many times, even in regular retail, where that's not the case, where things may be more expensive in-store even.' Article content A disconnect between prices can happen in other sectors, but an online surcharge is especially common with groceries, takeout and restaurants, Jacobson explains. 'It's quite a complicated consumer marketplace, and every app or retailer gets to set the terms. The power consumers have is determining whether they buy into it, whether it's worth it for them or not.' Pricing inconsistencies are just one part of the issue — there are also the fees. On May 28, Toronto-based law firm Koskie Minsky LLP filed a statement of claim against Uber Eats Canada, alleging it charges customers a hidden fee of roughly 10 per cent of the cart. The firm told CTV News that the levy is a 'quintessential example of drip pricing practices' (when companies draw customers in with low prices only to add mandatory fees at checkout). Similarly, on June 9, the Competition Bureau announced it's suing DoorDash for its 'deceptive price and discount advertising.' (DoorDash has disputed the Competition Bureau's allegations.) Article content Mark-ups vary across platforms, restaurants and retailers, making them challenging for consumers to detect. On average, though, they equate to 'a significantly higher bill,' says Jacobson. They can depend on the time of day or length of the delivery window. You could join a subscription model, in which you pay a set fee each month in exchange for lower service and delivery fees, or you could pay the standard fees plus 'an optional, but often expected' tip. In the case of Uber Eats, 100 per cent of the tip goes 'directly to the delivery people,' says Rang. Earnings also include the fare, which is based on the estimated distance and time. 'Additionally, in B.C., and beginning July 1 in Ontario, a government-initiated minimum earnings standard is in place, ensuring that delivery people receive a guaranteed base pay for their engaged time.' Article content Factoring in the fees and potentially higher item prices, 'your typical delivery app order for your groceries is certainly going to have a large convenience premium,' says Jacobson. For some consumers, these premiums may be justified. 'When you're talking about grocery, there's a pretty significant amount of time that people are spending in the grocery store going around, picking their fruits and vegetables and finding the produce.' Jacobson suggests consumers be strategic: Avoid paying more for last-minute or evening delivery slots and determine which platform works best for what you need, which changes over time. Charlebois also highlights the 'sky-high' cost of convenience when using apps like Uber Eats for groceries. The ethics of the issue are critical, he adds. 'I think everyone agrees that there's a price to pay for convenience. But does that price go up when greed is involved? And when you have seniors and people that are chronically ill — they just got an operation, they're not able to be mobile for a while, they can't leave their home — they have to get their food delivered, and they're paying extra for all that.' Article content Some people who use food delivery apps for groceries have options, 'but many do not,' says Charlebois. According to Statistics Canada's consumer price index, the food inflation rate fell from 3.8 per cent in April to 3.4 per cent in May. On June 24, ' I posted that and online, people are saying, 'Oh, my God, it's too much.' We're talking 45 per cent,' says Charlebois, referencing the price difference I encountered. 'Forty-five — for food.' Jacobson says there's 'big growth' in grocery delivery, with players such as Uber Eats offering promotions to entice people to place their first orders and move from in-store shopping. According to Statista, the revenue of the grocery delivery market alone is expected to grow by 10.8 per cent in 2026. This year, the average revenue per Canadian grocery delivery user is estimated to be roughly $753. Article content Consumers need to know what's playing into the premium they're paying before they can make an informed decision about whether the extra cost is worth it to them or not. When I ask Jacobson who's responsible for sharing this information, she said, 'There's definitely a shared responsibility (between retailers and platforms). But at the end of the day, it's the consumer who makes the decision as to where they want to spend their money.' So, after all of this, who should I be mad at? One thing's for sure: not my shopper, who left the comfort of their air-conditioned car to haul groceries on the hottest day since July 13, 2016. Thank you for your service. Article content Latest National Stories
Yahoo
07-06-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Heated Incident Between Former NBA Stars Turns Heads on Friday
Heated Incident Between Former NBA Stars Turns Heads on Friday originally appeared on Athlon Sports. Two former NBA players got into an altercation during the Greek Basketball league on Friday. Boston Celtics alum Evan Fournier got into it with Los Angeles Lakers alum Kendrick Nunn. Advertisement Among other teams, Fournier played for the Celtics for half a season in 2021, while Nunn played for the Lakers from 2021 to 2023. Fournier has not been in the NBA since 2024, while Nunn has not been in the NBA since 2023. Fournier currently plays for Olympiacos B.C., while Nunn plays for Panathinaikos. During their matchup against one another, Nunn excessively fouled Fournier as the latter was going up for a shot. Fournier took exception to it, but teammates separated them before things escalated. Fournier was then ejected from the game for an obscene gesture, but didn't stop Olympiacos B.C. from winning the game. As this incident has gained attention on social media, people began reacting around the basketball world. Advertisement One big name who commented was Los Angeles Clippers free agent Nicolas Batum, who wrote, "This series is absolutely insane 🍿 It was only Game 3 😂" Other fans had reactions to it too. "Fournier submarined Nun, most of you commenting have never played the game in your life," said one. "Dirty foul," said another. "Oh he was about to get active," one added. For even more context, this happened during the Greek League Finals. With the victory, Olympiacos B.C. is up 2-1. Game 4 will be on June 8, as this series is best-of-five. This was also not the first time there's been some tension between the two sides, as both teams agreed to have both owners not attend each other's games, per BasketNews. Advertisement Related: Celtics Star Named In Potential Mavericks Trade After Kyrie Irving News Related: Celtics Fans Excited After Jayson Tatum News on Thursday This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jun 7, 2025, where it first appeared.
Yahoo
05-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
America's Dental Health Is in Trouble
Credit - Photo Illustration by Chloe Dowling (Source Image:) Not long ago, Dr. Suzanne Fournier saw a 16-year-old patient with a swollen face and difficulty breathing. Fournier, a dentist who practices at an urban hospital in Louisiana, had to extract six of the teen's teeth; he was eventually intubated and admitted to the intensive care unit because his airways had closed up. He survived, but Fournier is worried that there will be more children like him across the country who could come close to death because of the state of their oral health. 'I really worry that someone is going to die because they have an abscessed cavity that develops into an infection, and they won't be able to access care,' she says. In the U.S., 27% of adults don't have dental insurance, according to the most recent State of Oral Health Equity in America by the CareQuest Institute for Oral Health, a nonprofit that advocates on behalf of better oral health care. That's about 72 million Americans. By comparison, 9.5% of adults don't have health insurance. And though many children can get dental care through Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), low reimbursement rates mean that many dentists won't accept those insurance plans, leading to dental-care deserts across the country. Only about half of all children on Medicaid used any dental service in a year, according to an analysis by KFF. Now, dentists say they're worried that a perfect storm of public-policy changes could further worsen oral health across the country. Proposed cuts to Medicaid would mean that fewer people will be able access dental care, as federal government staffing purges target places like the prevention division of oral health at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). What's more, as states including Florida and Utah vote to ban the addition of fluoride to drinking water and other states consider similar bans, dentists say the oral health of children and adults will suffer. 'We are already facing an oral health crisis,' says Melissa Burroughs, director of public policy for CareQuest. 'Medicaid cuts and water fluoridation rollbacks are the two biggest ways in which the oral health crisis is likely to be exacerbated.' America has long separated dental health from medical health. In most cases, Medicare, the federal health insurance program for older adults, doesn't cover dental care at all. Dental care through Medicaid varies tremendously from state to state, and states are not required to include dental coverage for adults, though they are required to include it for children. People going onto the Affordable Health Care marketplace for health plans can't purchase a dental insurance plan independently unless they also purchase a medical health plan. And subsidies offered to lower-income families on the health marketplace don't apply to dental plans. Even those people with dental insurance coverage often find that their plans don't cover much outside of a dental cleaning and check-up. About 40% of adults who have health insurance don't get regular dental care, according to one recent survey from the PAN Foundation, a health care advocacy organization. Not having dental health care can come with major consequences. Tooth decay and gum disease can exacerbate other health conditions and lead to heart disease, low birth weight in pregnancy, and even respiratory disease. Adults who present to emergency departments for tooth pain often end up with opioid prescriptions, which can lead to addiction. If children's teeth hurt, they may have trouble eating, leading to poor nutrition; if they're in pain, they're likely to sleep poorly. The CDC estimates that 34 million school hours are lost each year because of unplanned dental issues. Read More: The Science Behind Fluoride in Drinking Water 'You can find lots of studies that find associations between poor dental care and things like pneumonia and diabetes and heart disease,' says Dr. Lisa Simon, an internal medicine specialist who started her career as a dentist and then went to medical school to focus on oral health care. 'But even if you didn't think about any of those things, how important is it to have a central feature in our face look the way we want to, and not live with pain, and be able to take in nutrition?' Simon practices in Massachusetts, a state with one of the best dental safety nets in the country, and generous Medicaid benefits compared to those in other states. But she still sees people who have ended up in the ICU because of life-threatening sepsis from a tooth infection, patients who can't start chemotherapy because they can't pay to remove their infected teeth, people who won't even let her look into their mouths because they're so ashamed. In Massachusetts, fewer than one third of dentists accept Medicaid, which is close to the national average. 'I have gone down to Haiti nine times, and I have never seen the level of decay that I saw when I worked in Florida,' says Fournier, the Louisiana dentist, who previously practiced in Florida. She and other dentists worry that looming Medicaid cuts would exacerbate the problem; when state budgets are tight, dental care is often one of the first things to go. Massachusetts, for instance, cut Medicaid coverage for adult dental care in 2010 in the aftermath of the Great Recession; dental-related visits at a safety-net hospital increased 14% in the two years after the Medicaid cuts. Fournier recently testified before the Louisiana House of Representatives about Senate Bill 2, which sought to make it more difficult for localities to add fluoride to their drinking water. (In Louisiana, only about 38% of people are served by community water systems that fluoridate their water.) The bill was voted down in committee, but bills to restrict access to fluoride have been introduced in other states, including North Carolina, Massachusetts, Ohio, and Nebraska, according to CareQuest. Bills to ban the addition of fluoride in public drinking water have already passed in Utah and Florida. Some local counties have already voted in 2025 to ban fluoride independently. They are likely influenced by the Make America Healthy Again movement, led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. He has called fluoride a 'dangerous neurotoxin' and has said he wants the CDC to stop recommending fluoridation. In May, the FDA announced that it was trying to remove ingestible fluoride tablets from the market. Read More: What to Do If Fluoride Is Removed From Your Water Dentists predict long-term and costly health problems if communities continue to remove fluoride from the water. One recent study published in JAMA Health Forum found that the elimination of fluoride from the public water supply would be associated with a 7.5% increase in tooth decay and cost about $9.8 billion over five years. Places that have taken fluoride out of their water supply have seen an increase in dental problems; in Canada, for instance, Calgary removed fluoride in 2011, saw a significant increase in cavities, and is now reversing course and adding fluoride back in. Dr. Jeff Otley, a practicing dentist in Florida's panhandle, says he noticed when his region stopped fluoridating its water in 2014. He saw an increase in the number and severity of cavities in kids. The recent ban on fluoridation in Florida is going to affect kids and adults, he says, especially because Florida's Medicaid program offers barely any benefits for adults. 'We are going to have more disease, larger cavities, and some of these kids are going to have to go to the hospital because their cavities are going to be so bad,' he says. Oral health advocates say that in recent years, the country had been making some progress in improving access to dental care. For instance, a bill introduced in the Senate in March would require Medicare to cover dental, vision, and hearing. And some states have, in the last few years, expanded Medicaid benefits to cover adult dental services. This can end up saving money in the long run; when Colorado chose to expand Medicaid adult dental benefits under the Affordable Care Act, one safety-net provider saw a 22% decrease in tooth extractions, according to CareQuest. When states increase how much dentists can be reimbursed through Medicaid, more dentists sign up as Medicaid providers, which has been shown to increase children's dental visits. But advocates say they're worried that all of this progress is now going to be reversed, and that oral health in the U.S., especially for children, is going to suffer. Read More: How Having a Baby Is Changing Under Trump 'I think we're at this balancing point where if we can keep things moving forward, there is the real opportunity for millions of people to get dental care,' says Simon, the Boston doctor and dentist. 'But we've seen this before—anytime there's a budget shortfall, dental care is the first thing on the chopping block.' The irony of this to many dentists is that providing people with preventative care can actually save states money over time. Children on Medicaid who received fluoride treatments saved between $88 and $156 each for their state programs, one study found. Water fluoridation is another preventative policy that saves money: In 2024, the CDC estimated that providing communities with fluoridated water for one year saves $6.5 billion in dental treatment costs and leads to 25% fewer cavities. But some of these preventative ideas aren't likely to go far, says Amy Niles, the chief mission officer of the Pan Foundation. 'In this country, we don't always embrace the importance and value of preventative care to prevent disease later on,' she says. Fournier, the Louisiana dentist, is relieved that her testimony and that of other medical professionals helped persuade Louisiana legislators to ditch the fluoride bill. But she still chafes at a health care system that makes it so hard to provide preventative care for oral health. 'Our goal is aligned with RFK Jr.'s, which is to make Americans healthy,' she said in her testimony. But, she says, America doesn't seem interested in waging a war on the No. 1 chronic disease in children: tooth decay. 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