Today, oral health advocates joined Patty Hajdu, MP for Thunder Bay – Superior North and Minister of Indigenous Services, as well as Marcus Powlowski, MP for Thunder Bay-Rainy River, to highlight the new dental care benefits announced in Budget 2023.
Lynda McKeown, Registered Dental Hygienist, Dr. William Hettenhausen, Founding Officer and Executive Director of Your Teeth For a Lifetime Foundation, and Dr. Derval Clarke, owner of Sovereign Dental joined the MPs to discuss how Budget 2023 will positively impact the health and wellbeing of Canadians in the years ahead through new dental care programs and benefits.
Dental care is an important component of our health, but seeing a dentist can be expensive. Budget 2023 delivers a transformative investment to provide dental care to Canadians who need it, with $13 billion over five years, and $4.4 billion ongoing, to implement the Canadian Dental Care Plan. The plan would 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. The plan will begin to roll out in 2023.
Budget 2023 also proposes to provide $250 million over three years, and $75 million ongoing, to establish an Oral Health Access Fund. The fund will complement the Canadian Dental Care Plan by addressing oral health gaps among vulnerable populations and reducing barriers to accessing dental care, including in rural and remote communities.
This builds on the work of the Canada Dental Benefit introduced last year, which is already providing eligible parents or guardians with direct, up-front, tax-free payments to cover the cost of dental care for their children under 12, and has supported more than 240,000 children to date.
