The political culture of healthcare: why substantial dental care in Canada is covered by government insurance only in Québec – lessons for the United States?

Abstract

day of September in the year Nineteen hundred and seventy-eight, expressing the need for urgent action by all governments, all health and development workers, and the world community to protect and promote the health of all the people of the world, hereby makes the following Declaration:

Access to oral care is a human rights issue: a community action report from the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, Canada

“…For many ordinary citizen, accessing an oral health care provider for proper care has been inaccessible and expensive even before the pandemic [ 16 ]. Although certain provinces offer some form of government funded dental insurance [ 16 , 17 ], public oral health care is not an integral part of the health care system in many nations as it is in other countries, such as Brazil and Sweden [ 18 ].…”

“…For many ordinary citizen, accessing an oral health care provider for proper care has been inaccessible and expensive even before the pandemic [ 16 ]. Although certain provinces offer some form of government funded dental insurance [ 16 , 17 ], public oral health care is not an integral part of the health care system in many nations as it is in other countries, such as Brazil and Sweden [ 18 ]. In Canada, for example, for those who can afford these costs, more than one-third of the 13 billion dollars spend annually in oral health care comes out of their pockets [ 26 ]; only about 6% of this expense comes from government-sponsored insurances—dental plans—at federal, provincial, or municipal levels [ 26 ].…”