Dentists are reacting with cautious optimism to the federal government’s plan to help low- and middle-income families pay for their children’s dental care.
If passed, Bill C-31 — tabled Sept. 20 — would give eligible families with children under 12 up to $650 per child each year to pay for dental care services, depending on their household income.
The legislation will create a new Canada Dental Care Plan.
“This is positive news for patients who are going to be covered by this proposed legislation,” Sault dentist Dr. Dante Carlascio told SooToday.
“Overall it’s positive news for all of Canada because it’s good to see dental care getting attention on a national scale. This has actually never been done before.”
The new CDCP will provide dental care to approximately 500,000 children up to age 12 at a cost of close to $1 billion.
The government’s goal is to expand the CDCP to include people under 18 by next year and all eligible Canadians by the end of 2025.
“The general consensus from dentists is that it is important that the federal government has dentists at the table to create a proper plan that will work in the long term. We just want to make sure dentists have a say in how this program is created because we’re the ones who actually treat the patients,” Carlascio said.
“The Ontario Dental Association was not consulted,” Carlascio said, citing concerns stemming from what has happened in the past in the realm of dental care for the elderly.
“In Ontario, in recent years there’s been a dental program for low-income seniors, mostly for extractions and dentures, but it’s not in the regular dental office. You have to go through the health unit. “The ODA was not consulted before this program was created and what has happened is that there are approximately 100,000 eligible seniors in Ontario, but only a fraction have received treatment and there are waiting lists, in several areas, of over a year.”
“It’s not done through regular dental offices. People must apply through regional public health units. In that case it would go through Algoma Public Health and you’d be seen by a local dentist who has a contract there, but they’re only there part-time and there’s only select services covered by that,” Carlascio said.
“So if you don’t consult the ODA or any other provincial group, you can end up with a program that is quite inefficient and ineffective.”
Under the proposed federal dental plan, families with incomes under $70,000 a year would be able to qualify for $650 a year in dental coverage for children under 12 over the next two years.
Families with incomes between $70,000 and $79,000 will be able to qualify for $390 per child per year for the next two years.
Families with incomes between $80,000 and $89,000 could receive $260 per child per year for the next two years.
However, the Ontario Dental Association said in a statement that “the ODA is hearing from patients who are considering delaying dental care or canceling their benefit coverage in the hope that their costs will be covered by the CDCP. This is not a good idea.”
“There are more questions than answers at this point.”
“We don’t yet know how it will be delivered, what services will be covered or how it will work with Ontario’s existing dental programs — all of which are massively underfunded,” ODA said as that group and other provincial dental associations want to work with the federal government on with the details of how CDCP works.
Of the proposed federal program, Carlascio said “you have to jump through a lot of hoops, saying, ‘I don’t have any other kind of coverage, no private coverage.’
Parents or guardians will apply through Canada Revenue Agency and prove that their child does not have access to private dental care coverage and that they will use government funding to pay for dental services.
They will need to prove that they have a child aged 12 or under and that the family income meets the rules. Parents will also have to provide the government with their employer’s information.
Families using the program must also provide providers with the dentist’s name and the date of the appointment and keep their dental bills in case the government asks them to verify that the appointment was made.
Families who give false information, don’t provide receipts or don’t use the money for dental work can face a hefty fine.
Meanwhile, Carlascio said the proposed CDCP and $650 per child each year is a good first step and should cover two cleanings and two fillings.
“For routine dental care, yes. It should pretty much cover most of them. But the out-of-pocket costs could escalate if there are multiple cavities that need to be fixed or teeth that need to be extracted. It depends on the degree of dental work needed.”
“We don’t know what will be included in the coverage in the next five years. There are a lot of unknowns, but as long as they keep dentists at the table, I feel like this could be a really good thing,” Carlascio said.
“Nobody deserves a toothache, especially children. Improving access to care should make a huge difference. Hopefully, we will be able to treat dental problems in children earlier.”
“Research shows that with many public health programs, if properly funded, more eligible people will get the care they need. It is important that the most vulnerable people in our community receive regular dental care. He needs. They deserve it. They just need access,” Carlascio said.
