Election 2025: Greens push Labor to go further and faster on dental care in Medicare

Dentists appeal for gradual reform away from Medicare as Labor manoeuvres towards a soft stance on universal dental care access and the Greens turn up the pressure.

Greens Leader Adam Bandt with Wills candidate Samantha Ratnam, left, Macnamara candidate Sonya Semmens, and Victorian Greens senator Steph Hodgins-May. Picture: AAP

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The Albanese government has further opened the door to potentially introducing dental care into Medicare, with experts appealing for any admission to be made gradually, fearing a minority Labor government could cave to the Greens’ $46bn universal dental scheme.

Industry leaders and economists argued the Labor Party’s devotion to the Medicare system – which sits at the centre of Anthony Albanese’s 2025 campaign platform – would ham­string any proposal to begin offering relief to low-income Australians seeking cheaper dental care.

On Friday, the Prime Minister and Health Minister Mark Butler confirmed in successive interviews with ABC Radio Sydney that the addition of dental care into Medicare was a long-term aspiration for the party.

“We would like to consider that some time in the future; it’s a matter of making sure that the budget is responsible. We can’t do everything we’d like to do immediately,” Mr Albanese said.

Mr Butler said the service’s exclusion was an “anomaly”.

“I’ve tried to be as frank as I can be with the Australian people when asked about this before, Labor has an ambition over time to bring dental into Medicare,” he said.

“It’s really an historical anomaly that it’s not in there. It doesn’t really make a lot of logical sense that one part of the (body) is not covered by Medicare. Over time, we’d love to see it be able to come in, but it would be very expensive, a very big job to do, and my focus right now is on strengthening the Medicare that we currently have.”

Speaking in Melbourne, Greens leader Adam Bandt said the government was making Australians wait by holding off on taxing “excessive corporate profits”.

“Of course Labor can get dental into Medicare now, they just don’t have the guts to tax big ­corporations and billionaires to fund it,” he said.

“Australians have already waited 40 years for dental in Medicare, and Labor will make people wait another 40 years unless the Greens get them to act.”

Australian Dental Association president Chris Sanzaro has opposed the Greens’ dental strategy since Mr Bandt first released costings provided by the Parliamentary Budget Office.

Instead, Dr Sanzaro appealed for an expansion of the Child Dental Benefits Schedule – a redeemable subsidy on pediatric dental care for a limited range of services including fillings, X-rays, cleanings and check-ups – which could be brought to older patient groups.

“The Greens’ proposal is quite ambitious and unaffordable,” he said. “The Child Dental Benefits Schedule that’s currently running is well utilised by dentists. It doesn’t have a high uptake and that’s because of a lack of promotion … but it is a scheme that has been well accepted by dentists.

“The risk of doing full dental in Medicare is we’re starting again from scratch.”

Patients needing dental work face waitlists of up to two years in the public system, which the ADA cautioned would sprawl under the Greens policy as workforce expansions struggled to keep pace. It is also partially contingent on the implementation of two other policies: widespread reform of the corporate tax system, and subsidised university education.

“The proposal may result in changes to products offered by private health insurers, which may have a flow-on impact to insurance rebates provided by the commonwealth government,” the PBO report reads.

Greens leader Adam Bandt has led the charge for the full and universal introduction of dental care into Medicare. Picture: AAP

“It is highly uncertain whether there would be sufficient supply of qualified dental pro­fessionals to meet the increased demand for dental services under the proposal.

“The financial implications of the proposal are highly uncertain and sensitive to assumptions about the eligible population.”

Grattan Institute health economist Peter Breadon argued poor uptake of the Child Dental Benefits Schedule was proof in and of itself that targeted reform would be ineffective.

Despite endorsing a universal scheme, Mr Breadon – a former Victorian Health Department adviser – said Labor should incrementally build out new health infrastructure to subsidise price-capped dental care, rather than make broadbrush additions to Medicare.

He estimated the Greens’ universal dental policy would – at its completion – bake in an additional $20bn to the annual health budget, compared to a Grattan Institute proposal with a final $8bn annual cost tempered by excluding cosmetic care, capping spending per patient and progressively increasing service offerings in line with moderate workforce growth.

“It will be costly, but Australia can afford universal dental care if the scheme is designed and planned well,” he said, adding.

“There are good ways to make it more affordable. Like with other Medicare-funded healthcare, there will be parts of Australia, especially rural areas, that miss out if we simply subsidise dental clinics.

“Building a new universal scheme is an opportunity to do things differently.”

The campaign admissions by Mr Albanese and Mr Butler follow months of lobbying from the Labor caucus, namely by Macarthur MP Mike Freelander and outgoing Lyons MP Brian Mitchell.