Oral health care's contribution to catastrophic spending in Canada: a descriptive study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Oral health care (OHC) in Canada is largely financed through employer-sponsored insurance and out-of-pocket (OOP) payments and is generally excluded from its system of universal health coverage, although public financing will increase substantially with the introduction of the Canadian Dental Care Plan (CDCP). We generate estimates of catastrophic health expenditure (CHE) in Canada and assess the contribution of OOP spending in OHC on CHE between 2010 and 2019.

Methods

We examined the Survey of Household Spending from 2010 to 2019 by year and in pooled cross-sections and followed the WHO/Europe methodology to determine CHE. Spending OOP in OHC was compared to medicines, medical products, outpatient care, diagnostic tests, and inpatient care. We assessed CHE and th

SUBMITTER: Proano D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12682045 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature