Ford government asked to keep dental plan
Funding changes to a provincial children’s oral health care program could see fewer local kids smiling bright in the new year.
The Windsor-essex County Health Unit is urging the Ford government to reconsider its decision to download 30 per cent of the funding for the Healthy Smiles Ontario Program to municipalities.
This year, the program covered over $1.5 million in costs for around 8,000 childhood dental appointments in Windsor and Essex County. But unless the health unit finds a way to make up for the announced provincial cuts to funding that had been earmarked for oral health, the number of kids treated would drop.
“It’s no secret we have a need for oral health services in Windsor-essex,” Nicole Dupuis, the health unit’s director of health promotion, said following last week’s final meeting of the year for the organization’s board of directors. “We need more (funding), not less.”
Dupuis said the funding download doesn’t change the health unit’s overall budget, but it does mean about $450,000 previously slated for the local Healthy Smiles Ontario Program might have to be redirected to other health unit initiatives.
“That money gets pushed, gets shifted to the municipality,” Dupuis said. “It could be lost in the future depending on how our budget is and what other funding pressures there are.”
“There are actually quite a number
of kids in our community that aren’t even being seen at this point in time.”
According to the health unit, tooth decay is the leading cause of day surgeries for children ages one to five. The rate of day surgeries in Windsor-essex in 2016 was 300 per 100,000 people, compared to the provincial average of 104 per 100,000 and “representing a significant cost and burden to the health care system,” the health unit reported.
Individuals with the lowest incomes have the poorest oral health, the health unit said. Approximately 26 per cent of children age five and under live in low-income households in Windsor-essex. For children age 17 and under, it’s about 22 per cent — four percentage points above the provincial average.
From 2011 to 2016 in Windsor and Essex County, the number of children screened in school and identified with tooth decay or urgent dental needs increased by 51 per cent.
“We know what we received already wasn’t enough,” Dupuis said.
“This shifts the burden to the taxpayers of the local community. The same people who are suffering from the need are actually, in a way, cost sharing in the same service.”
The publicly funded dental care program serves children ages 17 and under. The Ministry of Health introduced Healthy Smiles Ontario in 2010 as a mandatory program for local health units to cover regular visits to licensed dental providers within the community.
Dupuis said there is a six-month waiting list for child oral health service at the health unit’s two dental clinics.
The Windsor-essex County Health Unit’s board of directors unanimously approved a motion requesting the province reverse its decision to download some program costs onto municipalities.