The Abbott Government’s cruel attack on dental patients continues, with last night’s Budget ripping $125.6 million from the Child Dental Benefits Schedule.
This is just part of the almost $60 billion in unfair cuts the Abbott Government has made to Australia’s health system in its first two Budgets.
Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey have broken their promises to families that they would not be hurt in this Budget. This is a cut to spending on the dental health of Australian children.
Just last weekend the Health Minister was promising the Abbott Government would “sink its teeth” into dental reform, promising $200 million in new spending.
The only thing the Minister has sunk her teeth into is Australia’s kids, stealing $125.6 million over the next four years from Labor’s scheme that provided millions of children with dental care through Medicare.
The Minister’s weekend promise of a big new dental health agreement has been exposed as a lie, with the Budget papers confirming not a single dollar of new spending will be provided, declaring “Funding for this measure has already been provided for by the Government.”
But as these figures also make clear, the Government has retained last year’s $390 million cut to this agreement with the states left to clear the backlog of patients waiting for dental treatment.
The fundamental unfairness of last year’s Budget disaster remains with cuts like this one to the dental health of Australian children.