Row threatens restoration of dental benefits
Plans to restore some dental benefits cut during the recession and to expand the scheme to the self-employed are in jeopardy as dentists push for a new contract.
Dentists and the Department of Social Protection met before Christmas to discuss the plans, which were announced on Budget Day, but a source said there were significant differences between the two sides.
Expectations were that 380,000 self-employed people would be brought into the scheme for the first time from the beginning of March — just over five weeks away — but the department now says it has not decided what date in March to aim for.
Further talks are scheduled and Minister for Social Protection Leo Varadkar is to give an address on the dental benefits scheme to an Irish Dental Association seminar at the end of this month but it is not clear how much progress can be made on the issue or if any start date in the spring is realistic.
Fintan Hourihan, chief executive of the IDA, said he could not comment on the negotiations. “A process is under way and out of respect for that, all I will say is that we are engaging in talks. We are on record criticising the cuts to dental services so we want benefits restored.”
The IDA says €600m worth of cuts have been made to free dental benefits for PRSI workers and medical card patients since 2010. All that is left for the 2m people who are eligible under the PRSI scheme is one free annual examination as subsidies for cleaning, fillings, root canal treatments and other preventative and treatment works were scrapped.
Some 1.7m medical card holders meanwhile, had preventative works suspended along with all but emergency treatments and extractions.
The IDA warned before the budget that there had been a surge in the number of referrals to hospital for complex emergency treatments as more people put off attending dentists for checkups.
Mr Varadkar announced in the budget that he would extend the free annual oral examination to the self- employed and farmers from March, and that he would restore the free scale and polish to all from October as a first step towards reversing the cuts.
Free eye tests are also to be extended to the self- employed from March and a contribution towards the cost of glasses is to be restored to all from October.
Dentists are not contracted to treat the self- employed, however, and are concerned about funding for any extra work. The source said they were adamant they would not take on the work at a loss to themselves.
The Department of Social Protection said: “The exact date in March 2017 for the introduction of treatment benefit for the self-employed will be set early in the new year. Discussions with the relevant representative bodies around the extension of treatments under the optical, dental and medical appliances schemes are under way.”
The IDA has warned of a widespread decline in dental health in future because of the years of cuts, arguing that the public dental service for children referred through school and child health services, and special needs patients, is woefully understaffed.
According to the HSE, there were 309 dentists and 15 consultants employed in the service last September, compared to almost 400 in 2008, while the under 16s population has grown substantially in the same period.
