Last Friday while eating breakfast I noticed what I thought was a piece of cereal lodged in my gum. After extricating it with my tongue I immediately realised it was a filling that had come out of my tooth.<\/p>\n
I booked a dentist appointment for later that day.<\/p>\n
This alone sets me apart from many Australians. When the ABS last surveyed our ability to access to healthcare across the 2024-25 financial year<\/a>, a quarter of people said they put off seeing a dentist even when they needed to.<\/p>\n If the graph does not display click here<\/a><\/p>\n Whereas the tendency to put off going to the GP is consistent across levels of socioeconomic disadvantage (which measures things such as income, employment status and skill levels), the tendency to avoid the dentist is very much linked to disadvantage.<\/p>\n That\u2019s because nearly two-thirds of people put off seeing a dentist due to reasons of cost, whereas cost is a factor for only 29% of people when deciding to put off seeing a GP:<\/p>\n If the graph does not display click here<\/a><\/p>\n My new filling set me back $237, even after private health insurance (and yes I know I am stupid \u2013 after all I wrote the column \u201cPrivate health insurance is a dud\u201d<\/a>).<\/p>\n Little wonder that 14% of Australians don\u2019t just put off seeing a dentist but they end up not going at all \u2013 compared with just 1% of people when it comes to the GP:<\/p>\n If the graph does not display click here<\/a><\/p>\n As I paid the bill, not for the first time did I realise how fortunate I was to be able to do so but also just how screwed the debate over the budget is.<\/p>\n Think about it \u2013 in one of the richest countries in the world, 29% of people put off seeing a GP due to cost and nearly two-thirds did so for the dentist. And that is just taken as a given.<\/p>\n It does not result in front-page stories of families going without other necessities due to medical costs \u2013 or going without medical care altogether because they simply can\u2019t afford it.<\/p>\n The fact is that we could have dental in Medicare \u2013 the Parliamentary Budget Office has estimated it would cost about $13.6bn this financial year. (For comparison, we know that a tax on gas exports would raise around $17bn a year.)<\/p>\n But the government has chosen not to do it. No one in the LNP or One Nation cares to suggest the government should choose to do it. And almost no Australian media<\/a> commentators would bother to push it.<\/p>\n Similarly, the biggest cut in the budget was to the NDIS \u2013 essentially an 11% cut in real terms:<\/p>\n If the graph does not display click here<\/a><\/p>\n But no one in the LNP, and few in the media, seem to care too much about this \u2013 instead it is largely taken as a necessary cut.<\/p>\n On the floor of parliament, the distorted priorities have also been clear. Rather than ask about how, as we reported last week<\/a>, those with Down syndrome will be among the most affected by cuts to NDIS services, the opposition has instead tried to suggest<\/a> the biggest issue for people with Down syndrome is testamentary discretionary trusts.<\/p>\n double quotation markAs the father of a child with Down syndrome, we have not felt any need to overhaul finances \u2013 but we are worried as hell about the cuts to services that greatly improve her life<\/p>\n It echoes this grossly misleading article<\/a> headlined: \u201cFamilies of disabled children forced to overhaul finances under new Labor tax reforms\u201d. In reality, special disability trusts<\/a> were specifically exempted from the changes to trusts. Nothing has changed for them.<\/p>\n As the father of a child<\/a> with Down syndrome, we have not felt any need to overhaul finances \u2013 but we are worried as hell about the cuts to services that greatly improve her life.<\/p>\n Rather than decry the cuts to the NDIS, instead we have stories bemoaning that total disability funding would reach $100bn<\/a>.<\/p>\n Consider an article about family trusts that contained the quote<\/a>: \u201cThe idea of giving your kids $1,000 a week in spending money a week \u2013 you won\u2019t do that any more.\u201d<\/p>\n