Everything we know about the Liberal-NDP dental care proposal

A proposal in the new Liberal-NDP agreement to create a national dental care program for low-income Canadians could deliver the largest expansion of Canada's public health care system in decades.

"It is a matter of dignity," NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said Tuesday. "This will make a massive difference for health and for people's quality of life."

The deal to create a dental program is part of the new Liberal-NDP "supply-and-confidence" agreement. The agreement will see the New Democrats support the minority Liberal government on confidence votes until 2025 in exchange for action on several NDP priorities.

The NDP campaigned on a promise of a national dental care program during Singh's two elections as party leader, but previous Liberal governments never moved on the project.

Here is what we know so far about the dental plan — how it would function, how much it would cost and the effect it could have on the roughly 6.5 million Canadians who don't have dental coverage now.

Under the program, families with annual incomes of less than $90,000 lacking dental insurance would be eligible for coverage.

Anyone making less than $70,000 annually also would not have to make co-pays — the flat rate fee which otherwise can be charged each time a person makes a claim. Dental fees would be fully covered by the government for any person or family with an income under $70,000.

The proposal is nearly identical to the policy plank in NDP platforms for the 2019 and 2021 elections.

The system would function along the lines of private insurance plans. The plan does not call for specific investments in health care infrastructure or for workers to support the needs of dental patients.

About 6.5 million Canadians are believed to be eligible for the plan. That figure is projected to decrease slightly to 6.3 million by 2025 due to demographic shifts and improving labour market conditions.

The plan is to be phased in over three years before the Liberal-NDP agreement expires in 2025.

Starting later this year, children under 12 would become eligible for the program.

In 2023, the coverage would be extended to 18-year-olds, seniors and people living with disabilities.

The program would be fully implemented by 2025 under the proposed timeline.