The federal government budgeted dental care grants for children at more than four times the cost of a typical dentist visit, according to the Canadian Dental Association (CDA).
“Overall, 95.6 percent of all claims submitted for children under age 12 were for less than $650,” said the association in a
submission to the Senate national finance committee on Oct. 26, 2022, as first reported by Blacklock’s Reporter.
“This was consistent across jurisdictions ranging from a low of 91.4 percent to a high of 99.3 percent.”
The Liberals’
Bill C-31, “An Act respecting cost of living relief measures related to dental care and rental housing,” received royal assent on Nov. 17, 2022. The Act pays a maximum $650 tax-free annual grant to cover dental expenses for children under 12 in households earning less than $70,000 a year for two years. Families with income from $70,000 to $90,000 would qualify for reduced grants.
The CDA said that based on electronic claims submitted by dentists across all provinces and territories in March 2022—prior to the subsidies being implemented—the typical billings for those children were way below the amount budgeted.
“[T]he median claim per visit for a patient under age 12 was $150. Half of all claims fell between $92 and $233,” the association wrote.
The federal finance department
estimated 500,000 children would qualify for the interim program that totaled $938 million based on an update last September.
Implications
An Inquiry of Ministry document tabled to the House of Commons
on March 29, and reviewed by Blacklock’s Reporter, says only 123,410 parents had applied, with $121.2 million in benefits paid.
The figures were requested by Conservative MP Dan Albas who
asked on Feb. 10 what amounts were paid out to recipients of the dental benefits.
Health Canada did not explain how the dental subsidies wouldn’t trigger a price hike by dentists across the country in its written
submission to the Senate national finance committee on Nov. 2, 2022.
“This is a temporary direct payment to eligible Canadians to help offset some of the costs for urgently required dental care services and it is not comparable to a comprehensive private or employer-sponsored plan,” the submission said.
The department was responding to the Senate committee following Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos’s appearance before the committee’s meeting earlier that day when he promised to follow up on a question posed by Sen. Clément Gignac.
Gignac had questioned Duclos, who is a trained economist, on whether the subsidies were so generous that they would lead to overall inflation in dentistry costs.
“[Y]ou know that when prices and costs are lowered, demand increases. What assurance do you have that this will not cause costs to skyrocket, that dentists will not increase their prices and that companies will become less generous with their dental care coverage?” Gignac
asked.
“That is a very broad question, and we will make sure to give you an answer,” the minister said at the time.
‘A Real Fear’
Ondina Love, president of the Canadian Dental Hygienists Association, told the same Senate committee on Oct. 26, 2022, that there is “a real fear” among corporate staff that their employers will drop their dental plan should the interim “Canada Dental Benefit” program be expanded to cover different age groups and become permanent.“In terms of the fear for employers to drop their plan, it is a real fear, but I think you either incentivize employers to maintain their dental benefits or you disincentivize them through large government fines and penalties if they take them away,” she
said.
The interim program will be scrapped by
June 30, 2024. On March 28, the federal budget proposed to expand the dental subsidies with $13 billion over five years, starting 2023–24.
“It isn’t just children who need affordable dental care,” the budget
said.
“The plan will provide dental coverage for uninsured Canadians with annual family income of less than $90,000, with no co-pays for those with family incomes under $70,000.”
