Matthew Clayfield July 28, 2009
Article from: The Australian
WORKERS will pay for a proposed $3.6 billion scheme to provide basic dental services for all Australians through a 0.75percentage point rise in the Medicare levy.
More than 650,000 people are on public dental waiting lists across the nation. And with the dental health of children worsening and rates of tooth decay and gum disease well above many other developed countries, the National Health and Hospital Reform Commission yesterday called for the creation of Denticare Australia.
The new commonwealth fund would ensure every Australian has access to basic dental services "regardless of people's ability to pay".
Sydney dentist Natalie Dalati, who knows the high cost of visiting the dentists can be as prohibitive as the fear of fillings and injections, said she would support any measure designed to get people into the dentist's chair. "The cost of dental care is one of the things that really pushes people away," she told The Australian from Dental Care Glebe in Sydney's inner-west yesterday.
"The lack of awareness in the community and high cost of dentistry can combine in a really negative way so that when someone is eventually forced to go to the dentist, those costs are pushed even higher.
"A lot of people don't realise that if they put off an appointment until they're in pain, they're probably going to need root canal surgery or a crown and it's going to cost them so much more."
The proposed scheme, which would cover check-ups, fillings and dentures, would be funded through an 0.75 percentage point increase in the Medicare levy. Patients will still have the option of getting basic dental services through a private health insurance plan or through public dental services.
However, the Australian Dental Association said the proposal reflected a "lack of appreciation of dentistry and the problems with dental care delivery".
"To make some very limited, very basic dental services universally available does not solve the needs of the disadvantaged and in fact may compound them," ADA president Neil Hewson said.
"It is not good enough to say that provision of basic services to all will fix dental care delivery. What is needed is delivery of dentally effective scopes of treatment that will provide long-term dental health -- not patchwork treatment with extractions and dentures, which may give rise to long-term problems later in life."
The health commission's report released yesterday found that one in three adults avoided the dentist because of the sometimes prohibitive cost.
Dr Dalati said she supported the idea of Denticare Australia, especially with 650,000 people across the country on public dental care waiting lists.
"Anything that will reduce the waiting lists in public hospitals is a positive thing," she said. "I teach one day a week for the University of Sydney at Westmead Hospital and by the time we see public patients there, they've often been on the waiting list for a couple of years.
"By that stage, their teeth have deteriorated a lot."
She said measures needed to be taken to make sure dentists wouldn't use the new system as an excuse to offer cheaper, mediocre services.
"Some dentists will either have to drop their fees or will be forced to charge a gap," she said. "There will be patients who won't want to pay a gap, and there will be dentists who drop their costs to accommodate them.
"But because of dentistry's high overheads, to cut down their costs they're going to have to cut corners. They might choose to put in short-term or temporary fillings made of low-grade materials or things like that.
"I would never change my fees, but I'm sure there would be dentists who would be happy to have a no-gap policy."
Rather than put up with the slow and inadequate health systems in some, "first world countries", you can have very high quality procedures done in South East Asia by Western trained, English speaking doctors and dentists at very short notice. Meditour can put you directly in touch with the most HIGHLY QUALIFIED clinics in the Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand.
I agree with Sydney dentist Dr Natalie Dalati (Australian, 28 July) that the cost of visiting the dentist is prohibitive but I have the solution for all Australians.
ReplyDeleteI went to the Philippines with the Australian company Meditour earlier this year for exactly the reasons she states. The cost is so high in Australia which meant my teeth became so bad that I had to seek overseas expertise so I could afford to have the work done. And many are taking that option up not only for the cost but also the care, quality of work, which is world class and the fact that they can get an appointment before bigger issues arise.
How can an Australian dentist quantify the quote of over $35,000 for dental work that was completed in the Philippines by an internationally trained dentist for $5000 and in just two weeks?
By its own admission, the health commission findings stated waiting lists are so long that dental problems are exacerbated and so we find Australia, a so called ‘first class’ country with a laughable dental regime. Now the public is going to be slugged yet more tax to help prop up a dental industry with a proposal that even the ADA says won’t work.
Dentists like Dr Dalati say it will likely propagate cheap and mediocre services because “some might need to cut corners.” and some “might choose to put in short-term or temporary fillings made of low-grade materials or things like that.”
Maybe if dentists cut their European sports cars, holiday homes and high profile addresses then the overheads will go directly into dental care and we won’t have to fund exorbitant lifestyles under the banner of dental ‘overheads’.
Dental care in the Philippines is not cheap it’s just that dental care in Australia is too high and the masquerading by dentists and the ADA needs to be addressed.
Given ADA President Neil Hewson’s assertions that the new Denticare approach shows a "lack of appreciation of dentistry and the problems with dental care delivery" really does smack of protectionism.
My appreciation of dentistry, Mr Hewson, was so acute that I sought overseas experts that every Australian can afford to fix a serious health issue that your profession could not. And might I add, Australian made dental products were used to give me my smile back.
G.Johns
Melbourne