title: Medicaid Meets Its Equal Access Requirement For Dental Care, But Oral Health Disparities Remain.
abstract: Most US children today have public or private dental health insurance, yet oral health among publicly insured children remains a policy concern. We analyzed data for 2011-12 from the National Survey of Children's Health to compare oral health status and the use of dental care among publicly and privately insured children. After we adjusted for demographic and parent characteristics, we found no differences between the two groups in parent-reported use of dental care or unmet need for dental care. However, compared to parents of privately insured children, parents of publicly insured children were less likely to report that the condition of their child's teeth was excellent or very good and more likely to report that the child had had a dental problem in the past twelve months. Family income differences between the groups accounted for much of this disparity. Our findings suggest that Medicaid is meeting its mandate to ensure that dental care is as available for children in the program as it is for privately insured children, but refinements in Medicaid policy are needed to improve poor children's oral health.
authors.affiliation: Jaffer A. Shariff (jas2400@cumc.columbia.edu) is a research associate in the Section of Population Oral Health and a periodontal resident in the Division of Periodontics, both at the College of Dental Medicine, Columbia University, in New York City.
authors.forename: Jaffer A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Shariff
authors.affiliation: Burton L. Edelstein is a senior fellow in public policy at the Children's Dental Health Project, in Washington, D.C., and a professor of dental medicine and health policy and management at the Columbia University Medical Center.
authors.forename: Burton L
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Edelstein
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D019140:Dental Care for Children / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D054625:Healthcare Disparities; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D019458:Insurance Coverage / 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; D009909:Oral Health; D014481:United States
keywords: Children < Insurance; Dental Care; Medicaid; National Survey of Children’s Health; Oral Health