Earn More Money & Still Be Eligible for Free Dental Care in 2017
- Feb 13, 2017
- 2 min read
The federal government's Department of Health & Human Services has released the 2017 Federal Poverty Guidelines. This update means that the income eligibility guidelines to become receive free dental care at HealthLink has also changed.
How are these guidelines determined? According to the HHS, they are "calculated by taking the 2015 Census Bureau’s poverty thresholds and adjusting them for price changes between 2015 and 2016 using the Consumer Price Index (CPI-U)."
How have the guidelines changed since last year? The guidelines have increased, meaning that households can earn more money in 2017 and be considered under the Federal Poverty Guidelines.
What does this mean for HealthLink Dental Clinic's eligibility guidelines to become a patient receiving free dental care? Adults wishing to become a HealthLink patient can earn more money and still be eligible. HealthLink defines "low-income" as living in a household with an annual income at or below 250% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines.
The maximum income limit depends on the number of people in the household. A single individual household can earn as much as $30,150 and be eligible to receive free dental care at HealthLink. A family of four could make as much as $61,500.
Other eligibility requirements that must be met include:
You must be 18 years of age or older.
You must live in Bucks or Montgomery County.
You or your spouse/domestic partner must be working (full-time, part-time, or seasonally).
Eligible patients can receive a full range of oral health services for free at the clinic's location on Street Road in Southampton. Available services include: cleanings, deep cleanings, x-rays, extractions, fillings, root canals, oral cancer screenings, and patient education.
For more information about becoming a HealthLink patient, visit www.healthlinkdental.org or call (215) 364-4247.
HealthLink Dental Clinic is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to improve the overall health of qualified low-wage earning adults in Bucks and Montgomery counties by providing free preventative and restorative dental services and oral health education. HealthLink is located at 1775 Street Road in Southampton, Pennsylvania. More information is available online at www.healthlinkdental.org.
It’s kind of striking how a park most people treat as “just where you walk” is tied to very specific decisions—like Henrietta Joyce donating such a huge chunk in 1955. The details about Joyce’s time at Miami and sports background also help explain why these local biographies can feel surprisingly relatable. Off-topic, but thinking about “profiles” and categories reminded me of how https://stylelooklab.com groups things by type and vibe when you’re trying to make sense of options. I’d be curious what the park was used for in the earliest years after the gift.
The park history angle here is my favorite kind of local read—land gifts, school leadership, and how a name ends up attached to a place people use every day. Also interesting that he went from teaching rural schools to becoming superintendent so quickly; that’s a huge leap. Total aside, but the way older photos can change how you “see” a place reminds me of turning snapshots into Ghibli-style artwork, where the same scene suddenly feels like it has a storybook layer. Would be neat if this series included a map or timeline of when the different parcels were added.
It’s easy to drive past a park sign and never think about why that person got honored, so I appreciate the specifics here—especially the donation from Henrietta Joyce and how much acreage that covered. The Sigma Chi and baseball details also help place him in a real time and social world, not just “a notable name.” Slight tangent: the way communities surface local projects reminds me of a directory for new AI tools where things get discovered because someone actually submits them instead of them staying invisible. Would love a follow-up that connects Joyce’s education work to the park’s later development.
The little biographical touches here (Venice schooling, teaching rural schools, then Miami U) make the park name feel a lot less abstract. I also didn’t realize how early he moved into the superintendent role—1903 is wild. On a side note, the way this post pieces together clues from different facts kind of reminds me of a handy cipher identifier tool where you infer the “type” from patterns, just with history instead of text. Would be cool to know if any of Joyce’s own writings or speeches survive locally.
I always like these park profiles because they connect the land to actual people and choices, not just a name on a sign. The political flip between father and son was a neat detail too—feels very “real life” and not tidy. Random aside: reading about Joyce being a star first baseman made me think of how I decompress with simple pattern games like BlockBlast after digging through local history rabbit holes. Curious if there are any photos of the old Jackson school mentioned here.