The Liberals seem to think they have a surefire wedge issue against the Conservatives: their hardhearted opponents want to snatch away free dental care from the nation’s kids and seniors.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was on the offensive in late May, talking at some length about the threat the Tories pose to programs such as dental care.
“These measures are based on the idea that everyone in this country should have access to the care they need no matter where they live, or how much money they have in their bank account,” he said during a news conference in Truro, N.S. “And yet, the Conservative Party of Canada opposes this idea at every turn. They opposed free dental care for kids and now for seniors, including pushing on dentists across the country to not sign up to offer free dental care to vulnerable seniors.”
It’s a great line of attack, except for one minor detail: almost nothing that the Prime Minister said is true, starting with his characterization of the federal dental benefit.
For a start, there is no “free dental care,” despite Mr. Trudeau’s repeated assertions to the contrary. (He made the same claim in the House of Commons on March 20 and May 22.)
Sure, there is a Canadian Dental Care Plan. And yes, that plan does currently cover dental services for children, seniors and adults with disabilities. But there are still out-of-pocket expenses. One is the co-payment required for any recipient whose adjusted net family income is higher than $70,000.
Even those with family incomes below $70,000 will still have to pay for dental care, since dentists’ fees can exceed the amount that government pays out. The official description of the program is perfectly clear on that question – perhaps the Prime Minister should bookmark the page.
Then there is the conspiracy-theory-tinged accusation that the Conservatives are somehow manufacturing dissent among dentists. When asked for proof of that assertion, the Prime Minister’s Office deferred to the Health Ministry, which dispatched boilerplate language that did not answer the question. So, no proof, then.
For its part, the Canadian Dental Association is quite insistent that its concerns are largely rooted in the mistaken belief, and resulting ire, of some patients that the federal program is free – a misperception amplified by Mr. Trudeau, among others.
The pity of it is, the Liberals have a perfectly good sales pitch to make on their new dental program. As this space has previously said, the design of the dental care plan is a blueprint for a modernization of social programs.
The benefits are targeted to those most in need, rather than diffused to higher earners who don’t really require Ottawa’s help. The co-payments are part of that targeting, and are an excellent innovation.
The program’s design recognizes the importance of the private sector. It does not displace existing private-sector dental plans. And rather than hire a slew of bureaucrats, the government chose to outsource the administration of the program to a private company with expertise in the area.
Then there is the latest innovation – which Mr. Trudeau studiously ignores – that allows dentists to charge more than the reimbursement amounts set by the government. Patients will end up paying something for services rendered, but the subsidies from Ottawa will substantially defray those costs.
The decision to not attempt to cap dentists’ fees avoids recreating the artificial scarcity that has left millions of Canadians without a family doctor.
The Liberals could take that policy success and brandish it as evidence of pragmatic innovation, and lay out a contrast with the Conservatives. That should be an easy debate to win, particularly since the Conservatives voted against the interim dental plan, and have yet to say what they would do with the current plan if they were to form government.
But that would require a Liberal Party that embraced the political centre, a party that was not afraid to talk about the virtues of the private sector, a party that was happy to highlight its enthusiasm for limiting costs to the public purse and to talk about its blueprint for modernizing social programs.
Instead, Mr. Trudeau is busy trumpeting a badly distorted version of that policy, preferring progressive fantasies to the reality of his government’s own handiwork.