Garry Pearson: It was $27 million a few years ago. So you’ve actually dropped the amount of subsidy going to private dentists for public patient treatment?

John Rogers: I’ll need to check but $27 million sounds a bit high to me.

Garry Pearson: What I’m getting at is that it’s State money flowing into private practices to treat public patients on vouchers. There’s no Commonwealth money, except a little for the enhanced primary care program.

John Rogers: Plus DVA (Department of Veterans Affairs).

Garry Pearson: Actually the amount of Commonwealth money and State money is about the same if you include the DVA money.

Owen Crombie: The disadvantage of public funding of patients in private practice - in what is called the enhanced primary care scheme – is that the amount you receive from the government is so insignificant that you might as well do it for nothing and save yourself the agony of the paper work.

For things like dentures, fillings, extractions, pain relief types of things, I keep a running tally and say, I would have received $900 for this normally, but I’ve been paid $400, so I’ve given $500 to charity. And when someone rings and asks for a donation to a charity, I say I’ve already given $8000 to charity this year.

That way I don’t get stressed about the fact that they don’t pay very much. I tell myself, ‘Well that’s just a public service that I see as a professional duty’. Future practitioners may not see it as a professional duty because they’ve had to pay around a quarter of a million dollars for their degree. So they’re highly unlikely to feel they owe the public anything at all.

John Rogers: It’s important to recognise there are two governments involved here. There’s the State Government, and the Commonwealth Government as Garry was talking about. There was a significant Commonwealth Government program which stopped in the 1990s. The Commonwealth continues to provide for the Department of Veterans Affairs clients. The State Government has free voucher schemes that are separate to the Department of Veteran Affairs scheme.

Peter Reade: How do you get a voucher?

John Rogers: You need to be an eligible client, that is, a person with a health care card or a pensioner benefit card, or their dependants. And there are two schemes. For those who require emergency care it’s a triage system with a financial limit. For those who’ve been on a general waiting list they can get a general voucher. The amount a private practitioner can claim is about $600 at the moment plus co-payment from the client which takes it up to about $700.

Felicity Crombie: There is also a limited number of treatment items that you are allowed to supply.

Owen Crombie: And you’re reimbursed at a scale of fees which means you’re making a considerable contribution to charity when you see these people.

John Rogers: Which is appreciated by the government.

Owen Crombie: Unfortunately it’s often not appreciated by people who think they should be getting the procedure for nothing. You point out that they’ve just paid $20, but you’ve just given away a hundred [dollars].

Witness to the History of Australian Medicine