Children's Dental Health: New Hampshire

New Hampshire meets five of the eight policy benchmarks aimed at addressing children's dental health needs. Although the state's grade was unchanged from 2010, Medicaid-enrolled children's use of dental services has increased since 2007. New Hampshire now provides dental care to over half of its Medicaid-enrolled children. Although Medicaid payment rates slipped as a percentage of dentists' usual fees, these rates still exceed the national benchmark.

In 2010, New Hampshire passed a law authorizing its Medicaid program to reimburse medical providers for preventive dental services, but the state had not yet begun paying claims when Pew compiled this report.¹ The Pew Children's Dental Campaign is supporting an effort to improve access to care by helping the state develop a new kind of dental provider.

1. Pew and MSDA survey of state Medicaid programs. See also New Hampshire House Bill 1537, http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/legislation/2010/HB1537.html (accessed March 4, 2011).