Dentists spurn Australian health voucher scheme

Children between the ages of 12 and 17 will be covered under the proposed system of subsidised dental vouchers. (Getty Images)

Newly-appointed Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has pledged to provide dental vouchers worth up to Aus$150 to teenagers each year, in a bid to extend access to federal dental health services.

The scheme, expected to begin next July, would include children aged 12 to 17 from lower- and middle-income families, who are eligible for tax benefits.

Care would be given through the federal insurance provider, Medicare, and would cost an estimated $510 million over three years. Under the scheme, all dentists would be given a Medicare provider number to receive refunds from the body.

"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," 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 off the health care system later on."

National dental groups, however, have said the proposed plan falls far short of providing full dental care. 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.

The vouchers would cover about half the average dental check-up cost of $290.

The president of the Australian Dental Association, John Matthews, said funding promises by both Labour 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.

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