Dental Scheme Loses Teeth
The Age
Wednesday May 14, 2008
THERE may have been a huge new $10 billion health fund announced in this budget but something the Government will not be trumpeting are the cuts to health that go with it.
On top of the Government's hit list was the abolition of the Medicare dental program, introduced in the last year of the Howard government, which entitled those with chronic disease to get $4250 worth of free dental treatment over two years.The National Dental Association has been begging the Government to retain a scheme that, after coming into effect in November 2007, delivered 150,000 services to sufferers. The Government claims that the $491 million saved is equal to the cost of its new teen dental plan, but the treatment of patients with severe dental problems was likely to blow out over the next few years and this was Medicare dental's curse.There will also be more than half a billion dollars' worth of cuts over the next four years to a series of health programs the Government claims "will not impact on the delivery of these health services" as these are programs in which funding outweighed demand.These cuts will be made to primary care and education, pathology services and mental health care. The Government expects to save almost $147 million on cutting down on Medicare fraud, partly by making it easier for Medicare to cross-check claims with medical records. GPs will be irked by the loss of incentive schemes - the Government is saving $194 million by cutting payments to GPs who take up electronic health systems or provide immunisation.The National Health and Medical Research Council, which funds most medical research, has lost $27 million from its 2008-09 budget.Cutting the Medicare levy surcharge will save the Government hundreds of millions of dollars, thanks to the many people expected to drop private health insurance cover.From July 1, the Government will raise the income threshold for the surcharge from $50,000 to $100,000 for singles, and from $100,000 to $150,000 for couples.Budget documents reveal the Government will miss out on $660 million over four years from people no longer paying the surcharge. But it expects to reap almost a billion dollars in savings, because it will not have to pay the 30% rebate on insurance policies abandoned by those returning to the public health system once the incentive of the surcharge is gone. The rebate saving is $232 million in the first year, which would correspond to hundreds of thousands of people dropping their insurance cover.The savings are predicted to increase each year, suggesting the Government expects more people will leave private health insurance as premiums rise. The Australian Health Insurance Association has claimed that by raising the income threshold the Government could force an exodus of 400,000 health fund members.
© 2008 The Age