We’re calling on the next Australian Government to adopt a staged 10-year plan to provide dental and oral health care (both preventive and treatment) to all Australians through Medicare. Find out more on the Public Health Association of Australia’s Federal Election priorities site.
Malcolm Baalman
In the 1970s and 1980s, Australia created Medicare – one of the world’s best national health insurance schemes.
Guaranteed to all Australians and overseen by independent medical advisors to ensure its quality and sustainability, the Medicare scheme makes sure all Australians can access affordable medical care – creating a more equitable, socially cohesive, and productive nation.
Contrast Medicare with health insurance in the United States, for example, where countless individuals and families experience hardship or even bankruptcy when health emergencies strike. That doesn’t happen in Australia.
But at the creation of Medicare, one key section of health prevention and treatment was left out. Dental and oral care were excluded because of the high cost and the anticipated political opposition from the dental profession.
The impact on the oral health of Australians has been significant.
Oral health is integral to our overall health, wellbeing, and quality of life. Dental conditions rank as the third highest reason for acute potentially preventable hospitalisations, and poor oral health is a marker of socioeconomic disadvantage.
Greater levels of oral diseases are experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, those living in rural and remote areas, some immigrant groups from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, people with specialised healthcare needs and ageing people.
“A healthy mouth enables people to eat, speak and socialise without pain, discomfort or embarrassment,” according to The National Oral Health Alliance, a collaboration of consumer, dental and general health member organisations, including the Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA).
“Dental conditions and oral diseases place a considerable burden on individuals, families and the community. Poor oral health is costly to society, hospitals and the healthcare system. The fragmentation and exclusion of universal access to affordable oral healthcare in Australia is costly and a significant gap in primary health care.”
“Prevention, early detection, and interventions for managing oral diseases need to be the cornerstone of universal access to affordable oral healthcare.”
There have been some efforts at partial public subsidisation of dental care in the past few decades, including a national program for kids at school. In 2008, the Commonwealth Parliament legislated power for the Government to provide dental care benefits, but the only program so far established under this law is the Child Dental Benefits Scheme, which commenced operation in 2014. The CDBS is a means-tested program providing children aged up to 17 with a capped benefit for basic dental services.
In the past few years, calls have been growing among health advocates and within Parliament to finally include dental care in Medicare.
As part of a recent Senate inquiry, initiated to examine a proposal from the Greens, the national Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) published a paper on Putting dental care into Medicare that examined and costed a range of options. All options are expensive, running to several billion dollars annually. Moreover, a sudden introduction of comprehensive coverage is not feasible, because the necessary health practitioner workforce simply isn’t immediately available.
PHAA wants the next government to adopt a staged plan to provide dental and oral health care through the Medicare system. We also advocate that the focus remains on prevention rather than cure, and on ensuring that equity is served, with those most needy prioritised.
This election, PHAA has chosen dental care as one of the key tests of the commitment of political parties to the future health of all Australians.
We launched our Election Priorities for 2025 campaign in January and are pressing all contesting parties and candidates to make Australia a healthier place, through reforms which give everyone in Australia an equal chance at good health – and a reason to smile.
Malcolm Baalman is PHAA’s Policy and Advocacy Manager.
Image: Nadezdha Moryak/Pexels
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