A relatively high proportion of children overall living in Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery counties see a dentist once a year (at least 92% across all four counties in 2012), yet disparities in access persist for children who are poor and uninsured, and in some counties, children who are Black and Latino.
Some children have private/employer health insurance that covers physical health care and not dental. Public health insurance (Medical Assistance and CHIP) covers both. In 2009, the federal government permitted states to create dental-only CHIP plans to help fill the coverage gap for children lacking private coverage. Data is not available regarding the number of poor children in suburban southeast PA who did not get dental care and had private medical but no dental coverage, yet attempting to identify and quantify these children and children like them across the state would help determine if Pennsylvania should create a CHIP dental-only option.
Click here for a summary of the Bottom Line Health Reports – Learn more about the state of children’s health across Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery counties.
Click on the links below for the full reports in all four counties.
- Bucks – The number of Bucks County children who saw a dentist increased nearly 13% from 2004 to 2012.
- Chester – Nearly one in five poor children in Chester county did not see a dentist in 2012.
- Delaware – More Black, poor and uninsured children did not receive dental care in 2012 than any other group of children in the county.
- Montgomery – Nearly three quarters of uninsured children did not see a dentist in 2012.