Is it normal for vulnerable patients to pay for Quebec-Ottawa disputes?
Posted at 1:16 a.m.
Updated at 5:00 a.m.
This is the troubling question posed by dentists in the public system after learning that the Quebec Ministry of Health is asking the network to boycott the new Canadian Dental Care Plan (RCSD), depriving some of the most vulnerable patients of the care they need. thought they finally had access.
Since June 27, eligibility for this dental insurance program, first offered by Ottawa to uninsured people aged 65 and over with a family income of less than $90,000 per year, has been expanded to include patients under 18 years old as well as disabled adults in the same situation.
The program, born from the alliance between the New Democrats and the Liberals, is far from perfect and there are a thousand and one reasons to criticize it. But the fact remains that for many patients for whom dental care was inaccessible, it is better than nothing. For those who must choose between paying for dental care or paying for groceries, such financial assistance, however imperfect, will always be better than no assistance at all.
Unfortunately for these people, due to a dispute between Quebec and Ottawa, access to dental care remains an obstacle course in which they are the big losers. Considering that the implementation of the RCSD constitutes an interference in its field of health jurisdiction, the Quebec government says it wants to try to obtain a right of withdrawal with full compensation from Ottawa in order to improve its existing programs. He therefore calls for the “collaboration” of the health network to help him show his teeth in Ottawa to the detriment of patients.
We understand very well the discontent of Quebec. But is it up to the poorest citizens to bear the brunt of this political battle? Do those who made this decision fully understand the consequences for patients?
You should know that the children or adults who are deprived of the RCSD here by the Quebec public system are not patients who could be easily treated in private offices of dentists who subscribe to the new plan.
In pediatric hospitals, we are talking about some of the most vulnerable children who have serious health problems or who live with an intellectual disability or even an autism spectrum disorder.
The same goes for adult patients who can only be treated in hospital due to their state of health or those who live in remote areas where access to dental care is limited. As things currently stand, they either pay for their treatments at the CISSS community clinic in their region, or they make a long trip to find a private clinic in town, which also generates costs, or they do without it. , risking complications.
In a very concrete way, the boycott of Quebec places dentists in the public system in an untenable situation facing their most vulnerable patients.
While some themselves encouraged their patients to subscribe to the federal plan, they had to regretfully tell them that, even if they were eligible, they would have to pay for care covered by the plan. And boom in the teeth of patients happy to have registered for the program!
Faced with a vulnerable person who says: “I can’t afford this treatment, I’m going to have to give up”, what should the dentist do?
Abandon the patient to his sad fate knowing full well that he risks an abscess or other complications which will cost the health system even more? Work for free? Only accept appointments with wealthy patients while waiting for the Quebec-Ottawa dispute to be resolved?
Unfortunately, if the past is any guide to the future when it comes to constitutional disputes, many people will have time to lose their teeth before an agreement is reached. Without delay, Quebec would do well to rely on the wise advice of dentists and patients who are rightly outraged by this affair: Argue if you want, but not to the detriment of vulnerable patients.
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