Australia ups dental efforts
August 30, 2012
THE Government has announced
a $4 billion dental package which
will provide more than three
million Aussie kids with
government-subsidised dental care.
The scheme will work in a similar
vein to Medicare-funded GP visits,
and will also provide dental
services to more than one million
low income adults and Australians
in rural and remote areas, focusing
especially on pensioners.
Described as an “unprecedented
initiative to address Australia’s
increasingly poor oral health”, the
six-year package includes: $2.7
billion for around 3.4 million
children for subsidised dental care;
$1.3 billion for around 1.4 million
additional services for adults on
low incomes, including pensioners
and concession card holders, and
those with special needs, who will
have better access to dental care in
the public system; and $225 million
for dental capital and workforce will
be provided to support expanded
services for people living in outer
metropolitan, regional, rural and
remote areas.
“While Medicare and free hospital
care have been a basic right for
Australians for decades, millions of
people in this country still go without
adequate dental care,” said the
Minister for Health, Tanya Plibersek.
Speaking in the wake of the
announcement Plibersek cited
recent studies which showed
children in the poorest areas
experience one and a half times the
amount of tooth decay and cavities,
compared to those in the
wealthiest areas.
“We also know that low income
households have more than double
the number of family members
with untreated tooth decay
compared with high income
households,” she added.
The package will allow children
aged two to 17 in Family Tax
Benefit Part A-eligible families
subsidised basic dental treatment,
capped at $1,000 per child over a
two-year period; whilst the $1.3b
will be divvied up to states and
territories under a National
Partnership Agreement to expand
public dental services for low income
adults; and the $225b will be
funneled into dental infrastructure
in outer metropolitan, rural and
regional areas.
The Dental Health Reform
package will replace the Medicare
Teen Dental Plan and the Chronic
Disease Dental Scheme (CDDS).
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