“Many Canadians today, including most of the working poor and the retired, are covered neither by government programs nor by private insurance. Lack of coverage is likely to worsen in the next decade as the babyboom generation retires and loses insurance coverage, and as more Canadians work in the gig economy, where insurance benefits are rare,” says Blomqvist.
Poor oral health may lead to substantial reductions in quality of life, disadvantage workers in the labour market, and also is responsible for a significant amount of costly visits to emergency rooms and primary-care physicians. There is even research to suggest that lack of access to dental care may be linked to increased heart disease, strokes, and certain forms of cancer. Ensuring that all members of the community have access to urgently needed healthcare is a central objective of Canadian social policy. In other countries with universal health insurance plans such as France and the U.K., these plans include dental coverage. Canada should follow these examples, says the report.
A straightforward way of creating universality would be to gradually expand and merge existing public plans until everyone in the population was covered. However, universality does not necessarily mean that everyone must be insured through the same plan. As an alternative, the authors explore a mixed model with competition between private and public insurance. Increased competition could help make the dentistry sector more efficient and reduce the cost of dental care which has continued to increase in recent years, even though the supply of dental care has expanded faster than the population. They also examine possible stumbling blocks in developing a broader public insurance plan, for example, controversies over what should be covered, and how new payment models and regulation could encourage more efficient service delivery in both the private and public sectors.
Click here for the full report
https://www.cdhowe.org/media-release/“public-option”-could-fill-gaps-dental-coverage?utm_source=C.D.+Howe+Institute+Mailing+List&utm_campaign=44210e3dae-Comm_510_CD&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_27c04c9c54-44210e3dae-270474513
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