Medicaid Meets Its Equal Access Requirement For Dental Care, But Oral Health Disparities Remain
Medicaid Meets Its Equal Access Requirement For Dental Care, But Oral Health Disparities Remain
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DOI：
10.1377/hlthaff.2016.0583
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发表时间：
2016-12-01
期刊：
影响因子：
9.7
通讯作者：
Edelstein, Burton L.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Shariff, Jaffer A.;Edelstein, Burton L.
今天，大多数美国儿童都有公共或私人牙科健康保险，但公共保险儿童的口腔健康仍然是一个政策问题。我们分析了2011-12年全国儿童健康调查的数据，比较了公共和私人保险儿童的口腔健康状况和牙科护理的使用情况。在我们调整人口统计学和父母特征后，我们发现两组在父母报告的牙科护理使用或未满足的牙科护理需求方面没有差异。然而，与私人保险儿童的父母相比，公共保险儿童的父母不太可能报告他们的孩子的牙齿状况非常好或非常好，而更有可能报告孩子在过去12个月内有牙齿问题。这些群体之间的家庭收入差异是造成这种差距的主要原因。我们的研究结果表明，医疗补助计划正在履行其任务，以确保牙科保健是为儿童提供的计划，因为它是为私人保险的儿童，但医疗补助政策的完善，需要改善贫困儿童的口腔健康。
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.