If a child's family does not have the funds to pay for needed dental care, this is currently covered by the Healthy Smiles Program. Any child in Ontario has access to this program, even if the family has dental insurance, as long as there will be some hardship to the family in accessing care. If a family is on social assistance, they also receive the benefits of the Healthy Smiles Program. As a pediatric dentist, I see about 75% of my patients under this program. Now comes the tough part. The provincial government has refused to negotiate a fair fee to remunerate dentists who accept this program. When the program was introduced over 30 years ago, dentists received 80% of their normal fee. Now we receive less than 40% of our normal fee. This is among the lowest remunerations of any province in Canada. As my overhead runs about 60%, accepting the fees in this program has become a financial hardship. Dentists in Ontario will not accept a Universal Dental program so unjustly administered.