Oral

Having health insurance is an essential component of access to health care. However, for publicly insured children, maintaining continuous, full year coverage can be a challenge. In fact, when children who are uninsured for part of a year are added to those who are uninsured for the full year, the number of children in the U.S. with insurance barriers to healthcare access more than doubles. Our first presentation analyzes a large data set from the Ohio Family Health Survey to describe the impact of insurance coverage gaps on child health access and health status. Our next presentation will describe a strategy implemented in Florida to expand insurance coverage for uninsured children in low-income working families. A strategy to provide healthcare for the uninsured, in a medical home model, implemented in Nashville Tennessee through a public-private partnership will next be presented. This will be followed by the presentation another model to provide care for the uninsured, in a partnership model involving an HMO and a government agency. The final presentation addresses the critical problem of access to oral health services for publicly insured children.

Session Objectives: • Identify the impacts of gaps in Medicaid coverage for children • Understand the challenges and benefits of designing and implementing a shared premium program as part of an integrated healthcare delivery model for low-income residents • Understand how state legislation can be implemented to develop programs for the uninsured • Describe how to build an effective coalition of health care providers to address the problem of the uninsured • Describe a replicable model for partnering with an HMO provider to increase access to health care within their community • Understand the benefits of improved access to oral health services

CE Credits: CME, Health Education (CHES), Nursing