One in five Americans have not visited a doctor or a dentist in the past year, according to the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS). In an examination of trends in medical and dental visits, the MEPS report analyzes data from 2003 through 2018. Over those 15 years, there has been a slight increase in the percentage of Americans who did not see a dentist or a doctor in a year's time, with the figure rising from 18.9 percent in 2003 to 19.8 percent in 2018.
Distribution of the population by dental and/or medical visits, 2018
37.1%: both medical and dental visits
34.4%: medical visits only
19.8%: neither dental nor medical visits
8.6%: dental visits only
Males (24.1 percent) are more likely than females (15.8 percent) to have had neither a dental or a medical visit in the past year. By race and Hispanic origin, Hispanics are most likely not to have seen a doctor or dentist (31.0 percent), followed by non-Hispanic Blacks (25.3 percent), non-Hispanic others (23.9 percent), and non-Hispanic whites (14.6 percent). Note: The category non-Hispanic other includes Asians and American Indians.
More than one in four people aged 18 to 64 (25.3 percent) did not have a medical or dental visit in 2018 compared with only 6.4 percent of those aged 65 or older. Among preschoolers (aged 0 to 5), the figure is 11.5 percent. Among school-aged children (aged 6 to 17), a larger 16.8 percent had not seen a doctor or dentist in the past 12 months.
Source: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, Trends in the Number and Percentage of the Population with Any Dental or Medical Visits, 2003–2018
