Budget 2023 expands dental-care program, but expected cost balloons to $13B

Tuesday's budget shows the Liberals are planning a government-administered insurance program, at a cost of $13 billion over five years beginning in fiscal year 2023-24.

The new federal budget shows the government’s dental-care insurance program is now set to cost more than double what the Liberals originally thought, adding another $7.3 billion over five years.

Last year, the government set up a temporary dental benefit for uninsured children under the age of 12 in families with a household income of less than $90,000.

That benefit will be scrapped by June 2024. In its place, Tuesday’s budget shows the Liberals are planning a government-administered insurance program, at a cost of $13 billion over five years beginning in fiscal year 2023-24.

“By the end of 2023, we will begin rolling out a dental care plan for what will eventually be up to nine million uninsured Canadians,” Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said in her speech to the House of Commons after tabling the budget Tuesday, according to a prepared version of her remarks.

The Liberals will open eligibility to people without insurance who are under the age of 18, seniors, and people with disabilities who meet the income criteria this year.

They plan to expand that eligibility to anyone who meets the household income requirements by 2025.

The program is the linchpin of the Liberal’s confidence-and-supply deal with the NDP to prevent an election before 2025 in exchange for progress on some of the opposition party’s key priorities.

Original estimates were based on preliminary information gathered just weeks after the federal government signed on to the deal, but government officials say those estimates have since increased as they’ve learned what it will really cost to administer the program.