Toronto – Ontario’s Health Minister says there is no money to improve the oral health of Ontario’s 500,000 working poor. Deb Matthews said the province doesn’t have the resources to keep a promise of providing a dental plan for Ontario’s impoverished adults. Instead, the $135 million earmarked three years ago for affordable, routine care for adults struggling to pay the pricey fees of licensed Canadian dentists, will go to their children.
Toronto Star reporters Michele Henry and Rob Ferguson report that 32 percent of Canadians do not have dental insurance and 17 percent of residents across the country avoided seeing a licensed dentist last year because of cost, according to a recent Health Canada report.
The Liberals promised in the 2007 election campaign to bring in dental care for low-income Ontarians, following that up with a budget commitment in 2008 to provide $45 million annually for three years to help about half a million of the working poor unable to afford private insurance coverage.
Another barrier from keeping the dental care plan from expanding beyond children is that public health units across the province were asked to submit proposals. Those have only recently been completed and submitted to the ministry, Matthews said.
