The Canadian Dental Care Plan (CDCP) is expected to extend coverage to its largest cohort soon — 18 to 64 year olds with a net family income of less than $90,000 who are not covered by private dental insurance.
The plan, which was first launched in December 2023, currently covers seniors aged 65 and older, children under the age of 18, and Canadians with a Disability Tax Credit for 2023.
But the exact date for the plan’s extension has yet to be announced. In October 2024, Health Minister Mark Holland said the plan would be extended in “early 2025.” In an email to rabble.ca, Health Canada said they could not confirm when the plan would be extended.
Brandon Doucet, a dentist based in Nova Scotia and founder of the Coalition for Dental Care, a group that advocates for a universal publicly-funded dental care system, said he’s worried about what this means for the plan’s rollout.
“If this program doesn’t get fully implemented in this Parliament, then the next government will not be so friendly to it because it’s looking like it’s going to be a Conservative government,” he said in an interview with rabble.ca.
On Monday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that he was resigning as leader of the Liberal Party and as prime minister, but said he will stay on until the party selects a new leader. He also announced that parliament will be prorogued — or suspended — until March 24, meaning that members of Parliament will be unable to vote on any new laws and all existing committee work will be put on hold.
READ MORE: Trudeau quits and prorogues. Canadians ask, What’s next?
Funding for the CDCP has already passed Parliament, and the plan’s rollout began in 2023, but some worry that the Parliament’s prorogue, as well as the impending election, could still impact the plan.
Doucet said he thinks that if the election is held before the plan is fully rolled out, the next stage will never be launched.
“If the program is not fully up and running, it’s not going to continue to get expanded,” he said. “It’s supposed to cover nine million people, so we’re only about one third of what it’s supposed to be at the moment.”
As of October 2024, about 2.7 million Canadians have been approved for coverage under the CDCP.
The benefits of accessible dental care
Maneesh Jain, president of the Ontario Dental Association (ODA) and practicing dentist in Guelph, said that dentists have long been advocating for more accessible dental care for Canadians without private insurance.
“Access to oral health care in Canada has been a challenge, too often an impossibility, for those without dental coverage for many decades,” he said in an email to rabble.ca. “It’s something dentists have been advocating to improve for just as long.”
“Dental care is incredibly important to one’s oral health and their overall health,” he continued. “Poor oral health is linked to many diseases and chronic conditions, including cardiovascular disease, dementia and diabetes.”
Doucet also emphasised the importance of accessible dental care, pointing to the state of Canadian dental social assistance programs prior to the CDCP, especially in comparison to other countries in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
“We ranked second last amongst OECD countries in our share of public dental spending as a share of total dental spending,” Doucet said.
Prior to the CDCP, only about six per cent of Canada’s total dental spending was covered by public programs. The remaining 84 per cent was funded by private insurance and out of pocket payments. Comparatively, in the United States, 10 per cent of dental spending is publically funded.
Doucet said that because of the limited funding, past programs have been inadequate — and have resulted in some patients taking matters into their own hands.
“These programs often cover only emergency services like extractions and neglect, preventative services and early intervention,” he said. “And the fees the programs pay out are around half of what the provincial fee guides pay.”
Doucet explained that prior to the CDCP, many dentists were being forced to take a hit on the cost of their services, resulting in some refusing to take on patients covered by public programs. He also said that some patients, often without the means, have been forced to pay the remaining price of their care out of pocket.
“You know, I’ve seen dozens of people who’ve told me they’ve tried to extract their own teeth with pliers,” Doucet said. “You could imagine the level of desperation someone has to have that.”
But Doucet emphasised that poor dental health can impact more than just health.
“It makes it so that people get trapped in that cycle of poverty,” he said. “Because if you can’t afford dental and it’s harder to find a job because you have missing front teeth and visible decay, it becomes a cycle that is self-perpetuating.”
Could the dental plan give employers an avenue to drop coverage?
Some dentists worry that the plan may give employers the opportunity to stop providing private insurance for employees that fall within the CDCP’s income bracket.
“An unintended consequence of the Canadian Dental Care Plan is the risk of employers dropping dental coverage for employees, and a plan is needed to mitigate this risk,” the Canadian Dental Association said in a statement.
Jain said this is also a concern of the ODA, which is a member of the Canadian Dental Association.
“We worry that employers may drop coverage for workers who would otherwise be eligible for the CDCP,” he said.
Jain explained that this could greatly increase the cost of the CDCP, resulting in the government being forced to make reductions in the plan to keep up with demand. He said he also worries that this may force Canadians within certain income brackets to pay more for dental care.
Under the CDCP, those with a household income in the bracket of $70,000 to $90,000 must cover between 40 to 60 per cent of their care, as well as additional fees not covered by the plan. If employers drop their coverage, employees may end up paying more than with their previous private coverage.
But Doucet said he isn’t concerned about de-insurance.
“If some corporation is going to get rid of their dental coverage, they should also be paying taxes to what would be the funding for the dental plan, or having some sort of progressive taxation,” he said, simply. “It’s a very easy thing to do.”
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