Dental budget boost expected
According to The Sunday Age (Stringent budget will show some teeth, 6/5/12), next Tuesday's Federal Budget will see a substantial increase in Federal funding of dental services.
The story advises that over 400,000 people on public dental waiting lists "will be targeted for help in a $345 million blitz on the public backlog". There is some question however about whether the Government will receive the support it requires to shut down the existing Medicare-funded dental scheme to allow reassignment of those funds to the new scheme.
According to The Sunday Age, "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."
Additional funding for related improvements to dental service access is reported to include:
The story advises that over 400,000 people on public dental waiting lists "will be targeted for help in a $345 million blitz on the public backlog". There is some question however about whether the Government will receive the support it requires to shut down the existing Medicare-funded dental scheme to allow reassignment of those funds to the new scheme.
According to The Sunday Age, "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."
Additional funding for related improvements to dental service access is reported to 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
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