WCHC sessions to shed light on government dental programs
ACCESSING GOVERN MENT FUNDED DENTAL
PROGRAMS IS the focus of a pair of upcoming information sessions hosted by the Woolwich Community Health
Centre.
The events will shed light on four programs, two federal and two provincial, that are available for qualifying patients.
At the federal level this includes the recently started Canada Dental
Care Plan for seniors and the interim Canada Dental Benefit (for children under 12) that will eventually be rolled into the dental care plan. The Ontario Provincial plans that will be discussed at the info sessions include the Ontario Senior Dental Care Plan for those aged 65 and older, and Healthy Smiles Ontario for those 17 and younger that come from low-income families.
With four separate programs it can be confusing for people to know which one they qualify for, said WCHC oral health peer worker Margret Gohl.
“We’ve been getting a lot of people calling us because of the federal program that just came out. Now they’re not sure if they qualify for that or if they’re on the one, can they do both” she explained. “That’s why we thought we would do this little session so people can understand the four different programs and if they would fit into any of those.”
There are several requirements to qualify for the provincial seniors’ program, including a maximum income of $22,000 per year for an individual and $37,100 for a couple. Further, people applying must have no other form of dental benefits, including private insurance or dental coverage under another government program, including Ontario Works.
Because the income eligibility requirement is so low, that program has an application backlog of around 18 months in the area, Gohl said.
“That’s a concern, but we’re hoping that the new Canadian federal program will be better equipped to handle the amount of people and take in a much larger group than the Ontario one, because the Ontario one has a fairly low income eligibility,” she added.
However, according to Gohl, the new federal program has its own issues, including confusion about which dentists patients can visit even if they do qualify.
“It’s not all definite yet. Everything’s not laid out. And we don’t know which dentists are doing it and which dentists aren’t doing it.”
In order to qualify for the interim child benefit, children under 12 must not be fully covered by private insurance and the family’s income needs to be below $90,000 a year. Applications for the federal
seniors’ benefit opened last month for those over 70 and will open in May for people aged 65-69.
Even for those that qualify under the federal programs there still may be some out-of-pocket costs. That’s because dentists may charge more than what the government is willing to pay,” Gohl said.
“So say program tells the dentist we will pay you $100 for a filling, while the dentist might say that filling is worth $150 to be done. Then the patient will be informed, supposedly, that they would still have to pay the difference of $50. That’s the choice of the dentist,” explained Gohl, noting that she is expecting more clarification on the program before too much longer.
The information sessions will be hosted at the health centre on April 22 from 2-3 p.m. and April 23 from 6-7 p.m.