Health Canada clarifies eligibility for seniors under national dental care plan
Marina von Stackelberg
The federal government has posted updated infor‐ mation online on who is eli‐ gible for Canada's national dental care plan.
The additional details come after seniors raised concerns about whether their existing private dental insurance plans disqualified them from the public plan.
A spokesperson for Health Canada told CBC News that people who pur‐ chased private dental insur‐ ance plans on their own will qualify for the national pro‐ gram - but only after their ex‐ isting private policies are no longer in effect.
Those with access to pri‐ vate dental coverage through their work or professional or‐ ganizations remain ineligible for the Canadian Dental Care Plan. They're ineligible even if they decided to opt out of their private insurance, haven't made a claim, or have to pay a premium, the website says.
Ottawa has now added an exception for retirees who decided not to sign up for private dental insurance of‐ fered through their pension plans. If they opted out of those dental plans before Dec. 11, 2023, and aren't al‐ lowed to opt back in, they qualify for the national pro‐ gram.
A spokesperson for Health Canada told CBC News its website was up‐ dated Monday.
Health Minister Mark Hol‐ land said his department looked at situations where retirees had chosen to opt out of their pension dental plans before the national program was announced.
"[That] put a few people in limbo, where there was a question mark about whether or not they were going to get their coverage.
We've said no, that's fair. That person should be able to get the coverage," Holland said Tuesday during a fund‐ ing announcement in Iqaluit.
1 million Canadians signed up so far
The $13 billion Canadian Dental Care Plan is expected eventually to cover an esti‐ mated nine million low and middle income Canadians who don't have private den‐
tal insurance.
"This is really about filling in the gaps, making sure that everybody gets coverage, as opposed to displacing ex‐ isting plans," Holland said
Tuesday.
Ottawa has been sending letters to eligible individuals inviting them to apply, start‐ ing with the oldest first. In March, eligibility opened to seniors aged 70 and older. Coverage is set to begin in
May. The program is ex‐ pected to be open to all eligi‐ ble applicants by 2025.
More than 1 million Cana‐ dians have signed up for the plan, Citizen's Services Minis‐ ter Terry Beech said during question period last week.
In order to qualify, appli‐ cants must have no access to private dental insurance and family incomes of less than $90,000 a year. They also must have filed a tax return and be Canadian residents.
Dental associations have recommended seniors not opt out of or cancel any ex‐ isting dental care insurance until Ottawa provides more details on who and what is covered.