Previous Medicaid Expansion May Have Had Lasting Positive Effects On Oral Health Of Non-Hispanic Black Children
Healthy tooth development starts early in life – even before birth. In this study, Brandy Lipton of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and coauthors assess the relationship between adult oral health and the extent of state public health insurance eligibility for pregnant women, infants, and children throughout childhood separately for non-Hispanic whites, non-Hispanic blacks, and Hispanics.
The authors used data from several years of Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) surveys and a sample of adults born between 1979 and 1991. Findings conclude that expanded Medicaid coverage geared toward pregnant women and children during their first year of life was linked to better oral health in adulthood among non-Hispanic blacks. These findings indicate that the Medicaid expansions of the 1980s and 1990s may have had long-lasting effects for certain low-income children and helped narrow racial/ethnic disparities in adult oral health. Read the full paper here.