Leading Dental Advocacy Group Welcomes Green Party Universal Dental Policy

A campaign group that has been building public support
for universal dental has welcomed the Green Party’s proposal
for universal free dental care, which was announced
today.

Dental for All, a coalition of groups including
health professionals and unions and anti-poverty
campaigners, is now calling for other political parties to
bring dental into the public healthcare
system.

“Bringing dental into our public healthcare
system is long overdue, and it’s a policy backed by an
overwhelming majority of New Zealanders,” says Brooke Pao
Stanley, spokesperson for Dental for All.

A poll
conducted in March this
year by the union for senior doctors and dentists found
that 74% of people in New Zealand support funding dental
care for adults in the same way as it is funded for children
and adolescents, who receive dental care for
free.

Support for universal dental in that poll was
strong across the political spectrum, with 77% of Labour and
Green supporters backing universal dental, as well as 73% of
National and ACT voters.

“Cost is a major barrier for
people getting dental care, because of the way dental is
carved out of our public healthcare system, and the result
is that people are forced to do DIY dental that risks their
own health, or they face mountains of debt and stress simply
to receive essential healthcare that we should all be
getting,” adds Pao Stanley.

The same poll commissioned
by Talbot Mills in March showed that 72% of people delayed
visiting the dentist because of cost in the last
year.

“We now encourage other political parties to
support universal, Te Tiriti o Waitangi-consistent dental
care this election, since making this service universal is
the best way to build public buy-in and to ensure we raise
the floor of services that we all have access to,” states
Pao Stanley.

Dental for All is made up of leading
dentists supportive of universal dentists (including Te Ao
Mārama Aotearoa Māori Dental Association), unions
including the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists,
and anti-poverty groups such as Auckland Action Against
Poverty.

• A petition
  launched by Dental for All in March 2023 now has over
  16,500 signatures.
• More background on the polling
  conducted in March 2023 by Talbot Mills can be found here. 
• Dental
  for All also backed a report
  published by ASMS in 2022, Tooth be Told, which showed
  that as of 2020 New Zealand had the highest level of unmet
  dental need among 11 comparable
  countries.

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