Inside the rapidly shifting Canadian dental plan

Canada’s dental plan, the first national model in the country’s history, opened earlier this year. And it’s already quite different than it was at launch.

For starters, it’s expanding eligibility—most recently to children under 18. But the government is also tweaking it on the fly in the hopes of getting more dentists and dental associations on board.

Dr. Brandon Doucet is a dentist and founder of the Coalition for Dentalcare. 

“Around four and a half million Canadians or so would still be left uninsured,” said Doucet.

He said that’s still an improvement from what we had before.

“Keep in mind, public dental spending as a share of total dental spending in Canada has been second lowest amongst developed countries, ranking even worse than the Americans.”

Why has it been so hard to convince dental practitioners to sign up? Are their concerns valid and what’s the government doing about them? Who does the plan cover, and how do you get access? And compared to what advocates have long fought for, how does the current model stack up?

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