Funding reform is critical to achieving universal access to oral healthcare in Australia.
Oral healthcare is the second-highest out-of-pocket health expense in the country, causing nearly one in five adults to delay or forgo necessary treatment due to cost.
While current funding models offer a strong foundation, government investment remains narrowly focused on low-income and priority populations. There is now a strategic opportunity to build on these efforts and move towards a more integrated, population-based approach.
The absence of a nationally agreed definition of what dental services should be government funded, limits the ability to allocate resources effectively. Adopting the WHO’s concept of essential oral healthcare would provide a clear, evidence-based framework for defining service coverage.
By building upon the priority-setting approach, the Australian Government can work towards integrating oral health into the public health system with incremental funding changes. This should be enabled by including dental practitioners and dental services using the Australian health technology assessment (HTA) process.