Dental-care program overbudget? That should be expected

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In less than 18 months, the federal government has screwed up. dental program.

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A 2023 OurCare study estimated that 6.5 million people in Canada did not have a primary care physician.

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Do you want it to be like this with dental care?

According to the Blacklocks Reporter: “The Federal Dental Plan is 50% over budget. The Department of Health has admitted it underestimated the volume of claims, which are expected to top $4 billion this year.”

“Forecasts show demand will be higher this year as many Canadians have foregone dental care due to cost,” Ryan Higgs, chief financial officer at the Department of Health, told the Senate National Finance Committee. “This demand is expected to decline in the coming years once immediate needs are met.”

Concerns that employers may cut coverage

Why should it decrease? If the government decides to do something like dental care, why don't they do what they did with health care, which is expand the program rather than restrict it.

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Senator Krista Ross said, “There is concern that companies may reduce, eliminate or reduce coverage for employees in their corporate dental plans. These are people who have dental coverage but may lose it.”

Of course she's right. Why not? I have dental insurance at work as part of my benefit plan, but if my employer and health insurance company see that the government is taking on more and more dental insurance, they would be wise to remove it from my coverage.

“If that happened, it would seem to me that dental program costs would increase, which was unforeseen because I think your projections were based on people who didn't have dental insurance,” Ross said. “These are people who have dental insurance but are at risk of losing it.”

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It is naive to expect that the program will not become universal over time

How is this unexpected? This was to be expected.

Lynn Rene de Cotreux, assistant deputy minister of health, said: “It's only been a year and seven months. We started with older people who have retired. Now we accepted on board people from 18 to 64 years oldworking population. We are watching.”

Someone told me that not all dentists agree to participate in the program, and his point was that this would prevent the program from becoming a one-size-fits-all program.

I think he's naive. The government doesn't like competition.

The current dental program subsidizes dentistry for Canadian taxpayers without private insurance or employment plans whose household income is less than $90,000 per year. To date, approximately six million people have become eligible for the program.

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The government is allergic to spending cuts

If I ran a company, I would deny dental insurance benefits to all of my employees whose household income is below $90,000.

Toronto Star reported that people are leaving Toronto because, they say, $200,000 a year is not enough to live in the city. Why don't these people support raising the limit or perhaps eliminating it and go for universal dental coverage along with universal health care?

When have we seen a government program fail to progress?

It is only when a program becomes universal, when the government crowds out or eliminates competition, that it becomes underfunded.

If universality guaranteed healthcare, we wouldn't have millions of people without a doctor and the longest wait times of any peer country.

Is this what we want from dentistry?

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