MELBOURNE, 16 March 2022: Medicare is Australia’s flagship bi-partisan policy that helps with medical costs and bulk billing. You can even have bypass surgery under Medicare. This unique and universally acclaimed health system started on 1 February 1984. The Australian government pays for Medicare through the Medicare levy. Working Australians pay the Medicare levy as part of their income tax. High-income earners who don’t have an appropriate level of private hospital insurance also pay a Medicare levy surcharge.
But there is one exception, i.e., dental services are not covered by Medicare. In fact, they are quite expensive forcing many to fly overseas for dental care. Now, the Greens have a ‘Policy Initiative’ for the 21 May 2022 federal elections to ‘Bring Dental into Medicare’. A three pages document was posted on their website detailing the Greens free plan under which people could visit a dentist.
The Greens will invest $77.6 billion over the decade to provide free dental care to everyone who is eligible for Medicare, ensuring everyone can visit the dentist when they need to. So, where will this money come from?
The document says, ” PAYING FOR OUR PLAN – By making billionaires and big corporations pay their fair share of tax and winding back handouts to big polluters, we can build a better life for all of us. 1 in 3 big corporations pays no tax and many big corporations and billionaires send their profits offshore tax free.
The Greens will tax billionaires with a new ‘billionaires tax’, require big corporations making excessive profits to pay a ‘corporate super-profits tax’ and axe billions of dollars in handouts to the coal, oil, and gas giants that are driving the climate crisis.
These measures have all been costed by the independent Parliamentary Budget Office. When big corporations and billionaires pay their fair share, everyone can have the services they need for a better life.”
The Greens also plan to expand and enable access to oral healthcare which will necessitate an increase in the size of the dentistry workforce in Australia. They plan to meet that growing demand for practitioners by guaranteeing access to fee-free university courses to train the next generation of dentists.
The plan looks good but are the mainstream parties (Libs & Labor) interested? There are also questions about funding such a plan. An article in The Conversation (The Greens want Medicare to cover a trip to the dentist. It’s a grand vision but short on details) says, ” The policy does not specifically address providing oral health and dental care for people with special needs, including aged-care residents or people with a physical or mental disability.
The campaign materials talk about “free dental care” but provide no indication as to how this will be achieved. Under Medicare, neither the fees doctors and allied health professionals charge, nor bulk billing, are mandated. It would be very difficult to impose set fees and a requirement to bulk bill on dental professionals.”
Thousands of Australians who are not able to go to the dentist have a ray of hope in the Greens dental care under the Medicare plan. How much political clout they will have to push this plan even if they have some sway in the next Parliament remains to be seen.
