Now do eyes, next

December 11, 2023 11:10 AM

Canada to roll out federal dental insurance plan in May 2024

First phase will see qualifying seniors first to enroll, kids under 18. Expansion to low- and middle-income Canadians in 2025.

posted by Kitteh (28 comments total)

This looks like a good start but I hope they extend this to all Canadians. I've got a private plan and it works fine but because me and my kids are already covered the federal doesn't directly affect me and so if a subsequent government were to cancel or limit this then that also wouldn't be a pain point for me. Extend this to everyone and it'll be much harder to roll things back in the future. Not impossible, as the forces of privatized health care are trying mighty hard to roll back our public health care as well, but more difficult.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 11:31 AM on December 11, 2023 [2 favorites]

Lisa needs braces! Dental plan!
posted by y2karl at 11:31 AM on December 11, 2023 [4 favorites]

Canada's own history says if you want this to work you have to make it universal. Could we just stop with neo-liberal compromises already? Staggered implementation and means testing dooms programs like this.
posted by srboisvert at 11:32 AM on December 11, 2023 [13 favorites]

i guess the way you accomplish that in the canadian context is by electing more dippers and less grits and absolutely none of whatever the socreds are calling themselves these days
posted by bombastic lowercase pronouncements at 11:42 AM on December 11, 2023 [4 favorites]

i wonder how doug ford is going to fuck this up for ontario
posted by seanmpuckett at 11:50 AM on December 11, 2023 [13 favorites]

This is great news*. Preventative care like this is going to mean huge savings later.

*Even though I don't qualify.
posted by Capt. Renault at 11:55 AM on December 11, 2023 [7 favorites]

Not surprised that the implementation is being staggered. This presumably aims to keep the NDP in the Parliamentary confidence agreement right up to the fixed election date in October 2025, and also makes sure that the bulk of voters have this freshly in mind when they go to the ballot box.
posted by senor biggles at 11:55 AM on December 11, 2023 [2 favorites]

bitchy noise aside, this is great news. my partner and i are covered by their federal civil service dental plan, but our disabled roomie has maybe two or three dentists in the GTA that will take them through ontario's feeble OW/ODSP dental plans. they went through a couple years of absolute hell with some shitty dental work by some assclown which had to be resolved with out of pocket extraction, bone grafts and an implant which ... fuck me sideways is just insane expensive.
posted by seanmpuckett at 11:57 AM on December 11, 2023 [2 favorites]

ah, subsidized luxury-bone coverage, for some
posted by torokunai at 12:03 PM on December 11, 2023 [3 favorites]

I'm happy to see this, it's a great start. I do wish that having private insurance didn't completely disqualify you from this plan regardless of income. With some not-great private insurance coverage, like mine, you can still be on the hook for hundreds or thousands a year depending on your teeth and how bad your plan is (large copays, unreasonable fee guides or schedules, excluded but necessary procedures, etc). Much better than no insurance at all, of course, but it can still be a hardship on a low income.
posted by randomnity at 12:04 PM on December 11, 2023 [2 favorites]

The Liberals sure are delaying this as long as they possibly can. I wouldn't be surprised if this isn't actually implemented by the time the election comes around and they try to campaign on it for the next government.

They also repeatedly promised, as recently as this year, to do this for disabled people in 2023, but now they've delayed that until probably pretty near the end of 2024 (disabled people can register in June, but won't be able to use it until some months later), so I don't trust their timelines at all.

It's a good thing, for sure, but I don't feel highly confident this will actually be in place before the next election, which means we might not get it at all.
posted by ssg at 12:05 PM on December 11, 2023 [3 favorites]

Great news. Staggered implementation also spreads out what is going to be a billizard of demand. I bet dentist offices are already having their phones ring off the desk. I certainly would be trying to book an appointment as soon as possible.

Here's hoping eye care is next.
posted by Mitheral at 12:07 PM on December 11, 2023 [6 favorites]

Also: props to the NDP for making this happen. This was a good example of how a relatively small Parliamentary caucus can still make a difference in a minority government situation, and a reminder of the importance of voting even if you don’t expect the party you support to win.

It will be interesting to see if this helps the Liberals recover ground against the Conservatives. My guess is it will, if only because Poilievre’s ingrained libertarian opposition to anything his ardent ideological supporters think of as sOCiaLIsM/cOmMunISm will likely prevent him from praising it. Then again, he may just come out with his own National Patriotic Canada First Plan for Saving Our Teeth from Illegal Immigrants…
posted by senor biggles at 12:22 PM on December 11, 2023 [9 favorites]

I suspect at least part of the staggered implementation is based on the absolute fucking disaster that rolling out the new public servant health plan has been. Much better to onboard people in subsets rather than everyone, everywhere, all at once.
posted by jacquilynne at 12:35 PM on December 11, 2023 [1 favorite]

Trudeau and the Liberals are done next election and I don't think there's anything they can do to stop it, so hopefully they start some programs that can't easily be rolled back.

I went to give condolences to a family friend in Mississauga, a suburb of Toronto, yesterday. His wife had passed away that morning from an infection during her cancer treatments. He complained about the quality of care she had received and how they had been told multiple times that the local hospital didn't have a bed to take her in and to go the emergency room at Toronto General Hospital. They did that once but didn't want to again because the ER at Toronto General is pretty rough due to the homeless and substance abuse crises. Health care is a provincial responsibility and one of the things the current PC government campaigned on when they first came into power was ending hallway medicine. Yet no complaint from him about the current provincial government. Later on someone was talking about interest rates and he said that Trudeau has to go and that he's counting down to the next election. The federal government doesn't control interest rates, and interest rates are high all over the world, yet somehow Trudeau gets the blame. Rightly or wrongly he's lost the narrative on a lot of issues and I don't think he'll be able to get that back before the next election.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 12:45 PM on December 11, 2023 [4 favorites]

I am okay with them rolling it out gradually, mainly because perfect can be the enemy of the good. Should it to be available to all Canadians regardless of income? Absolutely. But I am fine with the most vulnerable and disadvantaged getting first crack at it despite the near certainty a certain set of Canadians will see it as "why do they get something for nothing? I work hard!"

I have private dental insurance through my spouse, and it paid for a gum graft surgery last winter. But again, dental care is tied to someone else's job so I will hope that this program will eventually extend out to all.
posted by Kitteh at 12:55 PM on December 11, 2023 [2 favorites]

The program will likely be the first thing cancelled after the next election. Enjoy it while it lasts.
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 12:58 PM on December 11, 2023 [2 favorites]

Oooh! Maybe we can get something like this in the United Sta

Sorry, some ideas are just too absurd to type on the internet.
posted by chronkite at 1:08 PM on December 11, 2023 [4 favorites]

> a certain set of Canadians will see it as "why do they get something for nothing? I work hard!"

Under the upcoming series of CPC governments they'll get nothing and like it.
posted by The Card Cheat at 1:09 PM on December 11, 2023 [2 favorites]

I wonder how doug ford is going to fuck this up for ontario


Years of living in several Ontario cities (Toronto among them) suggests that for anything, the formula “Ford + time = chaos” applies.

Health care is a provincial responsibility and one of the things the current PC government campaigned on when they first came into power was ending hallway medicine. Yet no complaint from him about the current provincial government. Later on someone was talking about interest rates and he said that Trudeau has to go and that he's counting down to the next election.

I’ve spent decades on and off living in Ontario. This province has a long history of having the provincial government be at odds with the federal government of the time. Trudeau’s first fifteen (?) months in office saw Kathleen Wynne’s Liberals in Queen’s Park; before that I think you have to go back to the Diefenbaker era to find a longer stretch of both levels being the same party.

My guess (although I am not a botanist) is that this is the result of voters punishing by proxy whomever pissed them off most recently. Of course, the word “proxy” suggests that it is a calculated effort, but to judge from the comments on Canadian news stories, a lot of the commenters (or bots, or commenters no smarter than bots) are unaware that there are two different levels of government. Indeed, with the number of references to the first and second amendments, a lot seem unclear what country they are in.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 1:20 PM on December 11, 2023 [8 favorites]

Since the last big federal programs were complete disasters, what I think will happen is that they'll screw up the deploy, it'll either be unavailable or rife with fraud because they didn't have time to set it up properly, and then the CPC will come around axe it in the name of common sense, and that'll be the end of it for a long time.
posted by WaterAndPixels at 1:22 PM on December 11, 2023

but to judge from the comments on Canadian news stories, a lot of the commenters (or bots, or commenters no smarter than bots) are unaware that there are two different levels of government. Indeed, with the number of references to the first and second amendments, a lot seem unclear what country they are in.

This is true, but at the same time Canadian literacy of our own Charter of Rights and Freedoms could use A LOT of work.
posted by Kitteh at 1:27 PM on December 11, 2023 [1 favorite]

> My guess (although I am not a botanist) is that this is the result of voters punishing by proxy whomever pissed them off most recently.

That's been Canadian federal politics for my entire adult life.

1993: I hate Mulroney*! I'm gonna vote Liberal!
2006: I hated Chretien and now I hate Martin! I'm gonna vote Conservative!
2015: I hate Harper! I'm gonna vote Liberal!
2025: I hate Trudeau! I'm gonna vote Conservative!

* yes, I know Campbell was PM for that election but she just took the fall
posted by The Card Cheat at 1:39 PM on December 11, 2023 [4 favorites]

Good! Now do mental health!
posted by asnider at 3:17 PM on December 11, 2023 [1 favorite]

That's been Canadian federal politics for my entire adult life.

1993: I hate Mulroney*! I'm gonna vote Liberal!
2006: I hated Chretien and now I hate Martin! I'm gonna vote Conservative!
2015: I hate Harper! I'm gonna vote Liberal!
2025: I hate Trudeau! I'm gonna vote Conservative!

Yeah, many years ago a teacher told me parties don’t get voted into power, they get voted out. I have seen little to challenge this notion. Unfortunately, most newly elected politicians view the gradually building wave of dissatisfaction with the last guy as a triumphant mandate. Yeah, no.

Ontario electoral trivia: a hundred years ago this summer the Ontario Tories under Howard Ferguson came back into office after a stint in the wilderness as the third party. From 1919 to 1923 the Liberals were in opposition, as the winners of the 1919 election had been the UFOs.

I should perhaps explain: in 1919 the United Farmers of Ontario was a footnote: they had two incumbent MPPs, who had picked up their seats in by-elections. Indeed, when they had to form a government the party seemingly didn’t have a leader, and prevailed upon the party’s vice-president, one Ernest Charles Drury, to run in a by-election to enter the legislature (he hadn’t even run in the 1919 election and had but been successful on his first attempt, in 1917). Thus, for four brief years, the province was in the grip of UFOs.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 4:10 PM on December 11, 2023 [1 favorite]

Unfortunately, most newly elected politicians view the gradually building wave of dissatisfaction with the last guy as a triumphant mandate. Yeah, no.

And this is also why the Tories have lost several elections to a man who has a history of wearing black face. Just because the electorate may seem to hate the leadership of the party in power that doesn't always translate into a majority for the opposition. Certainly not for someone as unlikable as Poilievre.
posted by Ashwagandha at 9:32 AM on December 12, 2023 [1 favorite]

And this is also why the Tories have lost several elections to a man who has a history of wearing black face. Just because the electorate may seem to hate the leadership of the party in power that doesn't always translate into a majority for the opposition. Certainly not for someone as unlikable as Poilievre.

Poilievre seems to behave like he already won the election, and it's not a good look, fingers crossed this will at least sink him back into a minority government.

We would not be in this situation if the libs had done a proper reform of how MPs are elected.
posted by WaterAndPixels at 12:20 PM on December 13, 2023

Certainly not for someone as unlikable as Poilievre.

Conservatives starting to wonder if it’s a mistake to always choose the least likeable person on earth as leader

Note that the photos are of PeePee's two predecessors, both deeply affable and hail-fellow-well-met sorts by comparison to the current leader, a man with the aspect of a chronically constipated stoat. I suppose we are coming up on the next pendulum swing where disaffected Tories begin declaring that Maxime Bernier is their only hope for the fourth time.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 12:29 PM on December 20, 2023