Comparison of children's medical and dental insurance coverage by sociodemographic characteristics, United States, 1995.
BACKGROUND
Insurance coverage can reduce financial barriers that constitute a significant deterrent to obtaining medical and dental care, especially for children who reside in low-income households. We present baseline information on the codistribution of medical and dental coverage among US children according to sociodemographic characteristics before the enactment of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).


METHODS
Data for 27,059 children 0-17 years old from the 1995 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) were analyzed to examine the distribution of medical and dental insurance coverage by sociodemographic characteristics. Prevalence estimates and adjusted odds ratios with 95 percent confidence intervals were calculated using SUDAAN.


RESULTS
Overall, 14.1 percent children were uninsured for medical care and 36.4 were uninsured for dental care; thus, there were 2.6 times as many children uninsured for dental than for medical care. Near-poor and Hispanic children were most likely to be without medical or dental coverage. Near-poor children were more likely to be uninsured for dental care than for medical care (43.8% vs 22.5%).


CONCLUSIONS
Our findings, coupled with previous reports, suggest that the most serious problem concerning lack of dental insurance is among near-poor children. SCHIP has the potential to address dental coverage among near-poor children.
Vargas
Clemencia M
CM
University of Maryland Dental School, Department of Pediatric Dentistry, 666 West Baltimore Street, Room 3-E-11, Baltimore, MD 21201-1586, USA. cmv001@dental.umaryland.edu
Isman
Robert E
RE
Crall
James J
JJ
D000293:Adolescent; D044383:Black People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D005260:Female; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D007223:Infant; D019458:Insurance Coverage / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D007347:Insurance, Dental / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D007348:Insurance, Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008297:Male; D008484:Medicaid / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017057:Medically Uninsured / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016017:Odds Ratio; D011203:Poverty / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014481:United States; D044465:White People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D001741:Black or African American