Dental care demand among children with dental insurance

As the number of families with dental insurance and expenditures for dental care has increased over the past two decades, so has interest in determining cost-sharing effects on dental demand among insureds. Using a representative sample of Pennsylvania Blue Shield children insureds during 1980, we estimate cost-sharing effects on dental demand for basic (diagnostic, preventive, restorative, endodontic, and extraction services) and orthodontic care. Results indicate that cost-sharing has little influence on the probability of using any dental services and basic expenditures. However, the probability of using orthodontic services decreases 2.1 percent when the proportion of orthodontic expenditures paid by the parent increases 10 percent. By reducing the cost of care, cost-sharing reduces social class differences in dental demand common in unisured populations, likely producing public oral health benefits.