The Impact of the Affordable Care Act on Dental Care: An Integrative Literature Review

Jihee Song, Jeong Nam Kim, Scott Tomar and Lauren N. Wong
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Jihee Song: Department of Family, Youth, and Community Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA
Jeong Nam Kim: Department of Microbiology, College of Natural Science, Pusan National University, Busan 46241, Korea
Scott Tomar: Division of Prevention and Public Health Sciences, University of Illinois Chicago, Chicago, IL 60612, USA
Lauren N. Wong: School of Special Education, School Psychology, and Early Childhood Studies, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 15, 1-21

Abstract: The goal of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) is to increase access to health insurance and decrease health care cost while improving health care quality. With more articles examining the relationship between one of the ACA provisions and dental health outcomes, we systematically reviewed the effect of the ACA on dental care coverage and access to dental services. We searched literature using the National Library of Medicine’s Medline (PubMed) and Thomson Reuters’ Web of Science between January 2010 and November 2020. We identified 33 articles related to dental coverage, and access/utilization of dental care services. This systematic review of studies showed that the ACA resulted in gains in dental coverage for adults and children, whereas results were mixed with dental care access. Overall, we found that the policy led to a decrease in cost barriers, an increase in private dental coverage for young adults, and increased dental care use among low-income childless adults. The implementation of the ACA was not directly associated with dental insurance coverage among people in the U.S. However, results suggest positive spillover effects of the ACA on dental care coverage and utilization by people in the national level dataset.

Keywords: The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA); dental care coverage; access to dental services; national sample; systematic review (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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