A hellish year without health insurance

The stress was at times unbearable for Delaware County mother Sanjae Houston. She works part-time while her husband is self-employed in sales but for a little over a year they couldn’t afford health insurance.

Sanjae sighs deeply as she recalls that period when her daughter Rusheena, who is now 9, couldn’t afford to see a doctor.

“Definitely,” she told PCCY, “it was a long year.”

After a long pause, Sanjae quietly cleared her throat, and admitted, “To be honest with you, it was hell.”

For most, basic health insurance is taken for granted, except perhaps for when a co-pay seems too high. Unfortunately for others, a co-pay is a luxury.

Many children in Southeast Pennsylvania and across the Commonwealth are uninsured, underinsured, or cannot access the basic health care services they need, including dental care. For the past 15 years, PCCY has been working to address this issue by organizing a week-long free dental care event in partnership with dental practices throughout the region. This event, called Give Kids A Smile, as part of our advocacy mission to make sure every child in the state has access to health insurance.

(PCCY also provides free vision care every fall at Give Kids Sight Day.)

This year, 30 dental practices in Philadelphia, Delaware, Montgomery, and Chester counties opened their doors to provide free dental care to hundreds of children across the region. Together, these generous practices provided over 850 appointments for children to receive free dental care, including essential services such as cleaning, fluoride rinses and varnishes, sealants, and fillings.

Before the winter holidays, the prospect of Smile Week looked unlikely due to a loss of funding. But, thanks to PCCY’s first ever crowdfunding campaign, generous donors stepped up and helped us provide vital care for 850 children.

The care Rusheena received at longstanding PCCY partner UPenn’s School of Dental Medicine was very good, Sanjae says, noting how kindly they were treated and how well they communicated to Rusheena how the visit would proceed.

“They explained how important it was to take care of her teeth and kept her focused, which was good because most kids are afraid of going to the dentist to get their teeth cleaned.”

“I wasn’t scared,” Rusheena interjects. “It was fun! At the end they gave me a toothbrush, toys, and a bag of goodies. And there were these people dressed up in costumes.”

Fortunately, Rusheena reports she had no cavities.

Best of all, she now has health insurance, thanks to a little help from PCCY.

Along with providing essential dental health services, Give Kids A Smile helps connect children to public insurance programs. Even though most children in Pennsylvania are eligible for insurance through CHIP or Medical Assistance, over 60% of the children whose parents called to make appointments for Give Kids a Smile were uninsured. Families like Rasheena’s were all connected to PCCY’s Child Health Watch Helpline, which provides families with assistance in applying to public insurance programs.

Without insurance, whether your needs are big or small, “you can’t do anything at all,” Sanjae explains, reiterating her relief that her daughter is now covered.

“If someone doesn’t have health insurance, they just don’t have the ability to see a doctor or afford surgery. To me, that’s lifesaving.”

We asked Rusheena if there was anything else she wanted to share with us.

“You need to brush, every day, two times, morning and night, to keep your teeth strong. It’s very good.”

Very good indeed. We’re pretty sure those smiles we gave kids turn out to be contagious.
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PCCY thanks our amazing dental practices and partner organizations:

Jenny Chen Pediatric and Family Dentistry
Civillico Family Dentistry
Dream Smile Dental
Eagle Crest Pediatric Dentistry
Gentle Dental Care of Collingdale
Kevin Kilcoyne
Pristine Dental
Amjad Dental Associates
Dr. Raj K. Shah
Smile Concepts Dental
Upper Merion Dental Associates
20th Street Dental
A+ Pediatrics (Loretto Dental Specialty Center)
Children’s Dental Health
DeLisi Dental
Dental First Corp.
Doc Bresler’s Cavity Busters
Dr. John’s Pediatric Dental Team
Garces Dental Group
Health Center #2
Health Center #5
Health Center #6
Health Center #10
Kids Smiles (Market St.)
Kids Smiles (Island Ave.)
Nice Care Dental
Pediatric Dental Associates (Roosevelt Blvd.)
Pediatric Dental Associates (Allegheny Ave.)
Quality Community Health Care, Inc.
UPenn Department of Pediatrics

Special thanks to:
*School districts, school nurses, and community-based organizations that helped promote the event
*Our indespensible volunteers
*DentaQuest, who donated the toothbrushes for every child
*Our amazing Give Kids A Smile Coordinator, Sarah Parkinson!