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A RUDD Government would provide vouchers of up to $150 a year to cover 1 million dental visits by teenagers as part of a long-term plan to extend federal control of dental health.....
Labor pledges $510m for teens to visit dentist
Jonathan Pearlman
NoveA RUDD Government would provide vouchers of up to $150 a year to cover 1 million dental visits by teenagers as part of a long-term plan to extend federal control of dental health.mber 12, 2007
A RUDD Government would provide vouchers of up to $150 a year to cover 1 million dental visits by teenagers as part of a long-term plan to extend federal control of dental health.
Labor said the plan, to begin next July, would cover children aged 12 to 17 of lower- and middle-income families who are eligible for Family Tax Benefit A.
Kevin Rudd said yesterday the refunds would be made via Medicare and that all dentists would be given a Medicare provider number. The plan would cost $510 million over three years - though dental groups said it fell far short of covering general dental care under Medicare.
"Long term once we have our dentists as part of the Medicare system, it will provide us with a platform into the future to provide much more extensive care through the Medicare system," Mr Rudd said.
"If you try to clinically separate out dental health from the rest of health, you are not getting the real clinical picture … If you do this well, you are taking away some of the burden of the health care system later on."
The dental health of Australians is among the poorest in the developed world, figures released by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development show. Research by the Australian Health Policy Institute has found almost half of teenagers have signs of gum diseases and a quarter of adults have untreated decay.
Mr Rudd said the plan was designed to prevent the onset of dental decay and associated oral diseases. Campaigning in Perth, he said the vouchers would cover about half the average dental check-up cost of $290.
This year the Howard Government announced a $384.6 million plan to provide Medicare rebates of up to $2125 a year for people with chronic diseases that could be exacerbated by poor oral health. After taking office in 1996, Mr Howard scrapped a Labor scheme to provide $100 million a year for public dental care. Labor said in September it would end the Coalition's scheme and instead spend $290 million on clearing public dental waiting lists.
The president of the Australian Dental Association, John Matthews, said funding promises by both Labor and the Coalition fell far short of transferring the bulk of dental services to Medicare.
"Dentistry has been getting a lot of attention but it would cost about $4 billion to $5 billion a year to put dentistry under Medicare," he said.
Dr Matthews said most dentists already had Medicare provider numbers under existing health schemes. "These are schemes such as the cleft palate scheme and the enhanced primary care scheme, which just came in this year," he said.
The federal Minister for Health, Tony Abbott, said Mr Rudd was "making up for the mistakes of the state Labor governments" but his policy only half-funded consultations and people with significant dental problems needed treatment.
This story was found at: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/11/11/1194766508246.html
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