Tweed dental patients suffer, as Canberra and Sydney Labor buck pass

Tweed pensioners needing dental treatment are being left to suffer as the Labor Governments in Canberra and Sydney bring back the blame game, according to North Coast Nationals Senator Fiona Nash, who was visiting the Tweed today. “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. “Even if the scheme does get off the ground, it will be of little help to local pensioners because of the critical shortage of public dentists at the Tweed Hospital.” “The Rudd Government attempted to abolish the Coalition’s Medicare Dental Scheme, but fortunately the move was scrapped by the Senate on 19 June 2008,” Senator Nash said. “The Coalition scheme has already provided more than 300,000 services for mainly elderly people suffering chronic dental disease, 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 Tweed 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. 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”.. To interview Senator Fiona Nash, please call her 0428 864 845

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Comments

# Dentist Balmain

Monday, June 06, 2011 6:27 PM

Great that they already pass this law.s

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