Michael is joined by Dr Stephen Ducket, health program director for the Gratten Institute whose recent report calls for Australia to introduce a Medicare-style universal insurance scheme for primary dental care, to ensure all Australians can go to the dentist when they need to.

He writes “a universal dental care scheme for Australia calculates the scheme would cost an extra $5.6 billion a year, suggests it could be paid for in part by a rise in the Medicare levy, and recommends it be phased in over 10 years”.

“It’s needed because about 2 million Australians who required dental care in the past year either didn’t get it or delayed getting it because of the cost – and the poor and disadvantaged are most likely to miss out on care”.

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