Subsidized dental care for young men: its impact on utilization and dental health

An important part of Norwegian welfare policy is provision of free dental care for children up to the age of 18. After that age some counties have introduced a public subsidy scheme for young people aged 19-20 years, where 75% of their dental care expenses are covered. After the age of 21, all patients have to pay the costs for dental care themselves. The focus of the present work was to examine the effect that the public subsidy scheme for young adults had on demand for dental care, and its effect on dental health. The analyses were performed on 2 extensive sets of survey data. The major finding was that the public subsidy scheme had no effect on demand for dental care. In addition, there was no relationship between whether these young adults were covered by the subsidy scheme and dental health.