Arrogant Rudd ignores senate, denies pensioners

The Rudd Labor Government’s latest demands that dentists stop providing Medicare-funded treatment to patients with chronic conditions should be ignored, Nationals Senator Fiona Nash said today. “The Rudd Government attempted to abolish the Coalition’s Medicare Dental Scheme, however the move was scrapped by the Senate on 19 June 2008,” Senator Nash said. “The Coalition scheme treatment provided more than 300,000 services for mainly elderly people suffering chronic dental disease in just 6 months, offering eligible people up to $4250 over two years for dental work.” “Thanks to Nationals and Liberal Senators, Labor cannot legally abolish the scheme unless it successfully passes new rules in the Senate, and that cannot happen until December at the earliest.” “Dentists should therefore ignore Rudd Government bullying and treat as many patients as possible under Medicare,” Senator Nash insisted. She said this was especially important for country seniors, who are not eligible for Labor’s Teen Dental Scheme and have very little access to public dentists because of State Labor Government incompetence. “Labor promised to introduce on 1 July a flawed Commonwealth Dental Health Program which hands more money to the states to treat patients under the public system, but that has yet to happen because of bickering between the PM and the premiers,” Senator Nash said. The Rudd Government’s dental policy has been roundly criticised by the profession, with the Association for the Promotion of Oral Health, accusing Rudd of "bullying vulnerable people who desperately need care", and the Australian Dental Association saying Labor’s policy is “not going to make much of an impact on dental health”. Media Contac: Anita Cakalic 0447 340 025

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