February 12, 2007

A reader response to dental care post

Longtime reader Rick G. amplifies the remarks on dental care in my post below:

"I don't care if it's politically motivated by an imminent provincial election, the lack of publicly funded dental care for the poor is a disgrace. What makes a basic level of dental care different from a basic level of health care?

"Maybe it's because all those champions of of Medicare have jobs with benefits, and they care more about preserving a very expensive status quo (the economic sector that provides the most jobs in Canada) than actually helping poor people.

"I've known single mothers who quit their jobs to go on welfare to get dental care for their kids, when they should have been getting a hand up to be able to work their way off of welfare. Similar situations arise when someone without work benefits is faced with bills for necessary prescription drugs. Our social programs don't work very well at moving people from dependent to independent."

Posted by BruceR at 04:44 PM