Survey Finds 45 Million Americans Lack Dental Insurance

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Dental News
A survey done by the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics found that almost three-quarters (73%) of Americans under 65 years old had some type of dental coverage in 2008, leaving 45 million with no coverage.

The survey found that among those with dental coverage, one third (33%) had a comprehensive health insurance plan that covered dental care, 26% of those surveyed had a stand-alone dental plans while 14% had both types of dental coverage. Among those with employer-sponsored care, just 20 percent lacked a dental plan.

The survey revealed that about 80% of people with employer-based private health insurance had dental including in their coverage while only 30% of those who purchased health insurance privately had dental coverage in their plan.

The survey also confirmed the widely held belief among health care professionals that the higher a person's income and/or education level, the more likely they were to have dental coverage with roughly 40% of those without a high school education having no dental insurance coverage of any kind. When broken down by ethnicity, the survey found that blacks were more likely to have dental insurance than whites, Asians or Hispanics.

"A primary indicator of access to dental care in the United States is dental insurance. Previous studies have shown that persons with private dental insurance have more dental visits in the previous year than persons without private dental insurance," wrote Barbara Bloom and Robin A. Cohen of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics, Division of Health Interview Statistics.

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