What the Greens did yesterday with the launch of their plan for state funded dental care was to reprise a policy that the late Jim Anderton and his Progressives were pushing in 2011.
But their way of paying for it through a wealth tax is nothing short of bizarre. As one wit said, many an experienced and long serving dentist would be funding his own business through the wealth tax he’d have to pay under this dopey arrangement.
That’s before he took the first plane to somewhere else which appreciated his skills more.
Let’s be honest. The policy is never going to see the light of day because (a) there won’t be a Labour - Greens coalition after October 14 and (b) Labour aren’t interested in this initiative.
Which is not to say it’s a bad idea. In fact it’s a very good idea.
The reason dentistry was not part of the first Labour government’s nationalised health system set up in 1938 was essentially because of self-interest from the dentists who wanted the ability to set their own fees and work independently.
In Britain dentistry is part of the NHS.
The compromise is state funded dentistry up to age 17. If children have terrible teeth before this age, and thousands do, it’s because their parents are neglecting their children’s oral health, and most likely letting them drink sugary fizz way too often.
There’s no real excuse apart from slackness and discipline.
But adult dental care is absurdly expensive and the idea that it should be state funded or at least subsidised is worthwhile. Why couldn’t need be linked to the Community Services card?
But every time it comes into the political conversation, it’s a minor party policy which National and Labour never show much interest in.
Are the dentists still lobbying to be setting their own fees 85 years after Mickey Savage announced his Social Security scheme?
Bad oral health leads to bad health in other parts of the body. Early detection and treatment can be an ambulance at the top of the cliff.
Even worse public education in oral health appears to be close to non-existent these days. National made a play with their Tamariki Nico Ora or My Smile policy rolled out for the 2020 election.
The policy was blown away in the wake of National’s disastrous defeat that year.
Politicians say the cost of state funded or subsidised dental care is prohibitive.
The Greens estimate it would cost 1.2 billion. I doubt that’s the case because Jim Anderson said it would cost a billion back in 2011.
But even it’s 2 billion, that would still add only about 4 percent to the health budget.
It’s an idea a major party should run with, but if Labour and National haven’t been enthusiastic about it since the Second World War, I can’t them getting excited about it now.
Peter Williams was a writer and broadcaster for half a century. Now watching from the sidelines. Peter blogs regularly on Peter’s Substack where this article was sourced.
Let’s be honest. The policy is never going to see the light of day because (a) there won’t be a Labour - Greens coalition after October 14 and (b) Labour aren’t interested in this initiative.
Which is not to say it’s a bad idea. In fact it’s a very good idea.
The reason dentistry was not part of the first Labour government’s nationalised health system set up in 1938 was essentially because of self-interest from the dentists who wanted the ability to set their own fees and work independently.
In Britain dentistry is part of the NHS.
The compromise is state funded dentistry up to age 17. If children have terrible teeth before this age, and thousands do, it’s because their parents are neglecting their children’s oral health, and most likely letting them drink sugary fizz way too often.
There’s no real excuse apart from slackness and discipline.
But adult dental care is absurdly expensive and the idea that it should be state funded or at least subsidised is worthwhile. Why couldn’t need be linked to the Community Services card?
But every time it comes into the political conversation, it’s a minor party policy which National and Labour never show much interest in.
Are the dentists still lobbying to be setting their own fees 85 years after Mickey Savage announced his Social Security scheme?
Bad oral health leads to bad health in other parts of the body. Early detection and treatment can be an ambulance at the top of the cliff.
Even worse public education in oral health appears to be close to non-existent these days. National made a play with their Tamariki Nico Ora or My Smile policy rolled out for the 2020 election.
The policy was blown away in the wake of National’s disastrous defeat that year.
Politicians say the cost of state funded or subsidised dental care is prohibitive.
The Greens estimate it would cost 1.2 billion. I doubt that’s the case because Jim Anderson said it would cost a billion back in 2011.
But even it’s 2 billion, that would still add only about 4 percent to the health budget.
It’s an idea a major party should run with, but if Labour and National haven’t been enthusiastic about it since the Second World War, I can’t them getting excited about it now.
Peter Williams was a writer and broadcaster for half a century. Now watching from the sidelines. Peter blogs regularly on Peter’s Substack where this article was sourced.
3 comments:
Problem: dopey is the nanny state at it most dangerous
Dimwits believe this stuff = yet more freebies
Life on the tax payer is an unending breeze.
State-funded dentistry in the UK was never anything anyone I knew who could avoid it went near when I lived there. Only low-cost treatments and materials generally were used. We always went private if we could anyway.
Cheaper / smarter and far better for the government to give everyone an electric toothbrush, and a roll of dental floss, and teach all how to use these. That's of course if the Greens really cared about you or your teeth, which of course they do not!
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