Stringent budget will show some teeth
May 6, 2012

A $345 million boost to dental health will be announced in Tuesday's budget.   



HALF a billion dollars will be injected into dental care for the poor, while families with schoolchildren will receive cash payments in two of the few big-spending measures in Tuesday's austerity budget.

The Sunday Age can reveal that 400,000 Australians stuck on the public dental waiting list because they can't afford a private dentist will be targeted for help in a $345 million blitz on the public backlog, starting on January 1.   

Another $170 million will be used to lay the groundwork for a national dental scheme, funding more graduate training places and paying dentists to relocate to remote areas.


''Improving our dental health system has been a priority for me since I first became health minister and this package delivers hope to those who have waited too long on public dental lists,'' Health Minister Tanya Plibersek said. ''It will lay the foundation for a new way of providing dental services that will ensure that those most in need will get care when and where they need it.''   

Despite widespread cuts in the budget, the government will make twice-yearly payments totalling $820 for secondary students and $410 for primary students into the bank accounts of one million eligible families, replacing the complicated education tax rebate.

Recipients of Family Tax Benefit A will receive the payments from July, when the carbon tax comes into effect.

The program, believed to cost more than $2 billion over five years, will assist the many thousands of families who are eligible for the current rebate but don't claim it.

While the family payments will add up to $400 million to the government's bottom line, the dental package combines $225 million in new money with $290 million offset from the Commonwealth Dental Health Program.

But to deliver its much-vaunted budget surplus, the Gillard government is gambling on clinching parliamentary support to shut down the existing Medicare-funded dental scheme - which funds private dental work if tooth problems are linked to a chronic illness. The program has blown out from $377 million to $1.9 billion in four years.

Labor will hold talks with the Greens over the next two months to design a new national dental scheme, but does not intend to fund a replacement until the 2013-14 budget. That could leave a gap of up to a year in which there may be no Medicare funding for dental services, shunting some people who now qualify for the Chronic Disease Dental Scheme onto the public dental waiting list.

It is unclear whether the Greens would help Labor axe the Medicare scheme if there is a lengthy wait for a replacement, given the minor party ultimately wants universal dental care. But Greens dental spokesman Richard di Natale hailed this week's budget dental boost - which was a condition of Greens support for Labor to form government in 2010.   

The budget package will include:   

■$35.7 million for 100 extra places a year in the Voluntary Dental Graduate Year Program from 2016.

■$45.2 million on 50 more places a year for a Graduate Year Program for Oral Health Therapists from 2014.

■$77.7 million for relocation and infrastructure grants for up to 300 dentists who set up practices in rural and remote areas.

■$10.5 million for dental health promotion.

■$450,000 for NGOs to co-ordinate extra pro-bono work by dentists for disadvantaged people.


Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/business/federal-budget/stringent-budget-will-show-some-teeth-20120505-1y5zv.html#ixzz1u1vwn0HJ

Thank you Greens, Social reforms we so desperately need. A much needed rise for aged pensioners and the dental health scheme, gotta love the greens. Lets make it 2.6 million next election.
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I have fantastic news: Christine Milne and I have successfully negotiated for an overhaul of Australia's dental system.

We're starting with an immediate cash injection in Tuesday's Budget to help people straightaway, and we'll follow up by designing a new, national dental scheme in partnership with the Government.

This is the most important dental reform in a generation, it couldn't have happened without the Greens in the balance of power - and it couldn't have happened without you keeping Denticare on the national agenda with your passionate support. Congratulations! And thank you all.

When Treasurer Swan hands down the Budget on Tuesday night, a package of dental reforms that we've negotiated with the Government will help people get dental treatment faster and get the workforce ready for a national scheme.

The reforms we've negotiated for this week's Budget will mean:


$345.9 million for a public dental waiting list blitz, to help the 400,000 Australians on public waiting lists get treatment faster;
the Chronic Dental Disease Scheme will be saved from Budget cuts, until we can develop a comprehensive national scheme with the Government to replace it;
$158.6 million to train more dentists and oral health therapists, and help dental professionals set up practices in rural areas; and,
$10.5 million to promote good oral health.

This package is exactly the outcome we needed in this year's Budget to start Australia on the road to Denticare.

We're going to take the next steps on that road straightaway. Starting this week, and continuing in coming months, we will negotiate with the Government to design a scheme to help Australians access the dental care they need. We're all going to need to keep the campaign going to get the best outcome from those negotiations: bringing dental care into Medicare at last.

Later this year, we will bring the results of our negotiations to the Parliament and establish a national dental scheme. I look forward to voting for that reform, which will be a direct result of your passionate support.

It's worth celebrating how far we've come together. The 1.6 million of you who voted us into the balance of power gave us the leverage we needed to get the Government to commit to dental health in our agreement. Since then a groundswell of public support, one of the biggest we've seen, has backed Denticare every step of the way.



Senator Richard Di Natale
Greens
Victoria