Last September, as part of their agreement with the Greens to ensure stability of government, the Gillard government promised to consider proposals for improving the nation’s investments in dental care. Five months on, the government is struggling to find savings to pay for a dental scheme, which is placing pressure on an already tight budget.
The Greens went into the last election with a policy to implement a Medicare-style Denticare policy, although it is unclear whether that involved implementing the policy suggestion of the NHHRC or whether they were describing a different, universal health-care system parallel, or part of, Medicare.
In any case, the desire to implement a dental plan is the last of the four policies Labor promised the Greens when they signed their alliance last year to form a minority government. The other three—a multi-party committee to set a price on carbon, an implementation study for high-speed rail and a full parliamentary debate on Afghanistan—have been addressed.
But the problem remains the potential cost of such as scheme. Estimated costs range between $5.5 and $11 billion. The Greens have indicated they are prepared to see universal access phased in over a number of years, with an initial scheme focussing solely on low-income earners. This would bring their plan into line with the ADA’s DentalAccess proposal, which was delivered to the government last year. The ADA says there are around 4.2 million people with healthcare concession cards which would qualify them for such a scheme. The ADA scheme has been costed at around $2 billion annually.
Meanwhile, the government has taken the first steps towards finding the money by unveiling a proposed new pathology funding regime, deferred subsidises for medicines and announced a requirement that cabinet must approve any new pharmaceutical spending.
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