Madam Speaker, I am pleased to rise today to participate in the discussion on dental care for Canadians.
The government remains committed to its promise to work with Parliament to study and analyze this issue. Both the 2019 Speech from the Throne and the 2019 Minister of Health's mandate letter committed to support Parliament in studying and analyzing the possibility of a national dental care program.
Across the country, many Canadians have coverage for dental care through private employee health benefit plans, while many others are supported by government programs. According to the Canadian Institute for Health Information, $15.9 billion was spent on dental services in Canada in 2018. Of this, 55% was covered through private insurance plans, 39% was paid out of pocket, and 6% was publicly funded by a variety of federal, provincial and territorial government programs.
We know that three-quarters of Canadians visit a dentist at least once a year, which is higher than the OECD average. Canadian wait times for dental care are amongst the shortest in the world. According to the results of the 2018 Canadian community health survey, over two-thirds of Canadians reported having dental insurance that covered all or part of their expenses. Approximately two out of three Canadians report having no dental needs.
Despite these figures, there is also evidence that many Canadians face cost barriers to accessing care. Approximately one-third of Canadians are uninsured, and 22% of Canadians, roughly 6.8 million people, have avoided visiting a dental professional due to costs. Those with dental insurance are more likely to have visited a dental professional, although 14% of Canadians with dental coverage have still reported avoiding dental care due to costs.
We also know that income is not the only barrier preventing Canadians from accessing dental care. By the time they are adults, 96% of Canadians have been impacted by dental decay. It is largely preventable and disproportionately impacts, and more severely impacts, our most vulnerable populations. Those in rural communities, in particular age groups, such as young adults and seniors, those with disabilities and racialized persons, including indigenous people, face unique barriers accessing dental care.
In 2017, the Auditor General of Canada found that Inuit and first nations persons have nearly twice as much dental disease as the rest of the country. Further, the Canadian Institute for Health Information has found that day surgery rates for early childhood caries, which are generally preventable and treatable, were 8.6 times higher amongst children from neighbourhoods with denser indigenous populations.
We also know that oral health is an integral element of overall health. Poor oral health and inequitable access to dental care is connected with multiple health conditions and challenges, including chronic pain, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease and certain forms of cancer.
The Canadian Cancer Society advises that in overall cancer incidence in Canada, oral cancer ranks ninth in men and 13th in women. The trend line is increasing. Fifty-three hundred Canadians will be diagnosed with oral cancer annually, and nearly 1,500 will die from it.
Though I have spoken to figures that indicate access issues exist, this data is limited, often quite dated and not available equally across the country. We do not have comprehensive data on unmet dental care need at a national level, nor do we have a full understanding of the needs of various subpopulations.
This is why our government has committed to support a parliamentary study on the issue. In addition, to address data gaps, the government has partnered with Statistics Canada to design an oral health component for upcoming cycles of the Canadian health measures survey, funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and in collaboration with leading researchers from all 10 of Canada's university faculties of dentistry and experts from the U.S. and the United Kingdom.
The survey is scheduled to begin next year, although findings would not be available until 2024. Once available, this work would help to update our understanding of dental needs and will provide key information for those developing oral health programs and policies for Canadians.
In addition to improving data on dental care, the federal government continues to provide coverage for dental care services for certain groups of people.
Through the non-insured health benefits program delivered by Indigenous Services Canada, the government provided dental coverage for recognized first nations and Inuit. In the period between 2016 and 2018, over 420,000 clients received dental services through the non-insured health benefits program. In addition to this, the children's oral health initiative provides dental coverage for many first nations children under the age of seven.
The government also offers dental coverage through the employment benefits for federal employees, federal retirees, Canadian Armed Forces members and veterans, and RCMP members and veterans. In addition, it provides limited dental coverage for federal inmates and for some newcomers through the interim federal health program.
Alongside these government programs, all provinces and territories fund and manage their own dental care services. As part of their medicare programs, this covers medically necessary surgical dental services performed by a dentist in a hospital, when a hospital is required for the proper performance of the procedure.
All provinces and territories also provide additional dental coverage at their own discretion, though these programs vary greatly between jurisdictions and are often limited to select groups such as children in low-income households, people receiving social assistance benefits, people with certain disabilities and senior citizens. The specific eligibility requirements, the type of service included and the financial coverage levels vary greatly depending on the province or territory. At the same time, stakeholders have raised concerns about the rising dental costs coupled with stagnant financial limits for the public dental coverage programs, creating a barrier by asking dentists to absorb costs or turn patients away.
Provincial and territorial health care programs, including those with dental coverage, are supported by federal funding through the Canada health transfer, or CHT. The CHT is a key federal funding mechanism for supporting Canada's health care system, providing long-term, predictable funding to provinces and territories. Provinces and territories are free to decide how to allocate those funds in order to best address their individual health care priorities, including dental care and related services. The CHT is providing $40.1 billion to the provinces and territories this fiscal year. This will continue to increase each year, in line with the growth rate of the economy, with a minimum increase of 3% per year. Over the next five years, this funding to provinces and territories is expected to exceed $234 billion.
To support the improvement of the oral health of Canadians and fulfill our international responsibility, the government works with partners and stakeholders nationally and globally, including organizations in the professional, regulatory and educational domains, such as the Canadian Dental Association and the Canadian Dental Regulatory Authorities Federation. We also collaborate with international health and dental organizations such as the World Health Organization, the FDI World Dental Federation and oral health authorities around the world.
These initiatives demonstrate that our government is playing a constructive role to support access to dental care for Canadians. We look forward to the outcome of the parliamentary work on this issue.