Survey: Dental practitioner attitudes to expanding Medicare to include more dental services
Understanding Australian dental practitioner attitudes to expanding Medicare to include more dental services is critical amidst calls for reforem.
We want to hear your views on expanding Medicare to include more dental services.
Are you an Australian dental practitioner? Our research team is interested in hearing from you about access to dental care. We've already heard from hundreds of dental practitioners like you. They are telling us that many of their patients are experiencing challenges in accessing dental care, and there are a range of different suggestions that could be considered to help those patients.
We want to make sure that your opinions are considered too. The questionnaire will only take 10-15 minutes to complete.
You are being invited to participate in a research project that is investigating Australian dental practitioner attitudes to expanding Medicare to include more dental services, which is being led by the Melbourne Dental School, University of Melbourne. The Principal Researcher is A/Prof Matt Hopcraft at the Melbourne Dental School, in conjunction Prof Alexander Holden at the University of Sydney. This project has been approved by The University of Melbourne Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC 31002).
Many Australians experience challenges accessing dental care, and dental treatment has one of the highest out-of-pocket costs across healthcare. When Medibank (the precursor to Medicare) was first proposed in the 1970s, it was envisaged that it would include the provision of dental services. However strong opposition from the dental profession meant that dentistry was left out. As a result, public dental services for financially vulnerable population groups evolved at the state/territory level. A lack of prioritisation and resourcing now means that many services have long waiting lists up to two years, and care is rationed such that there is limited focus on regular preventive care and there is a strong emphasis on emergency treatment.
There have been a number of Commonwealth funded schemes over the past 30 years including the Commonwealth Dental Health Program (1994-1996), Medicare Chronic Disease Dental Scheme (2007-2012), Medicare Teen Dental Scheme (2008-2013) and the Medicare Child Dental Benefits Scheme which has been operating since 2014.
A recent Senate Select Committee into the Provision of and Access to Dental Services recommended the expansion of Medicare to include more dental services. However, little is known about the views of dental practitioners, including the acceptability, likely participation and associated benefits and risks of any potential new scheme.
The aim of this project is to investigate Australian dental practitioner attitudes to expanding Medicare to include more dental services.
The study involves a short (15min) questionnaire. Following the questionnaire, participants can opt to also participate in an online interview with the researchers to further explore relevant issues
Your participation is voluntary. If you don’t wish to take part, you don’t have to. If you begin participating, you can also stop at any time. In order to participate in the research project or for further information, click the link below.
Please share this amongst your colleagues and networks to help ensure a broader representation of views.