Rudd Government sinks its fangs into public dental plan

Rudd's razor gang continues to wield the knife.

 

According to The Daily Telegraph last week. 

 

"A MEDICARE dental scheme paying for 20,000 dental treatments a month will be abolished by the Rudd Government in three weeks' time.

The scheme, which provides up to $4250 in Medicare benefits for dental work, has been in operation for just three months.

The latest Medicare statistics show that 20,224 dental services were funded under the scheme in January.

Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon is axing the $384 million scheme and replacing it with a plan to give the states $290 million to pay for one million dental consultations at public dental clinics.--

The Association for the Promotion of Oral Health yesterday slammed the axing of the Medicare dental scheme, claiming Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was "stealing Medicare entitlements".

Association chairman Hans Zoellner said Mr Rudd, who has a heart valve replacement, relied on high quality dental services to avoid a deadly complication of his condition known as endocaritis.

Bacteria from gum disease or dental decay could have resulted in a life-threatening heart infection, Professor Zoellner said.

"He is stripping Australians less fortunate than himself from the same dental services he requires for survival," he said.

"We don't all marry millionaires."

 

Now I know that it is possible that Howard's scheme for dental care from private dentists on the recommendation of GPs may have been open to a level of overuse or abuse.

However, carving out a cool $94 million from the dental health budget is not the way to go.

 

The combined states waiting lists at public dental clinics need more than what is on offer to fix the long wait for treatment.

 

"There are 485,000 Australians waiting up to 10 years for public dental treatment and Professor Zoellner said Labor's extra funding would only treat 83,000 of them."

 

Indeed, with most of those who have been on the waiting lists for years now needing considerable work done on their mouths, this new level of funding (which will actually be prioritised and allocated by state governments) will probably only continue to spent on examinations and extractions rather than efforts to keep functioning teeth.

That way the states will make the money go further towards allowing them to avoid significant increases in their own contributions to dental health funding.

 

Ms. Roxon needs to remember that, like health, dental services are the constitutional responsibility of the Commonwealth and ensure that state governments are locked in to proper use of the limited funds she is offering.

Many on the NSW North Coast will be watching this issue with interest as they wait in the dental queue.

Personally, I would have preferred to see the proposed $31 billion in inflationary tax cuts reduced instead of budget cuts eating into public health measures.