Over 4 Million Canadians Left Uninsured With The New Dental Plan

Saniya Aamir
3 min readJan 17, 2024
Image by bess.hamiti@gmail.com from Pixabay

As the national dental insurance program by the federal government gets underway, a recent report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) suggests that the plan doesn’t cover enough Canadians and proposes an additional $1.45 billion in funding.

To be eligible for the Canadian Dental Care Plan, a national dental insurance initiative resulting from a collaboration between the Liberals and the NDP, applicants need a household income below $90,000 and no existing dental coverage.

However, according to the CCPA’s latest report titled “Coverage Gaps,” released this Tuesday, the income criteria is considered too restrictive, leaving many Canadians without sufficient coverage.

According to a statement released by CCPA senior economist David Macdonald on Monday, earning a $45,000 salary for each parent in a two-parent household is not considered a significant income in Canada.

In fact, he pointed out that 59 percent of families with children have a total income surpassing $90,000. However, the catch here is that exceeding this income threshold disqualifies families from receiving federal dental care coverage.

Before the big launch of the Canadian Dental Care Plan, the government introduced the Canada Dental Benefit back in…

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Saniya Aamir
Saniya Aamir

Written by Saniya Aamir

Dentist on a mission to make oral health more accessible… one article at a time