Dental Hospitals And Health Services

If the question of financing personal medical and dental hospital care had dominated the public on health services that preceded the 2013 election, other and perhaps equally important issues were to come short afterwads. Although the establishment of a Health Insurance planning committee was announced in December 03, Medibank, which provided universal cover  against medical, optometrical and dental hospital costs, was not operative until 1st July,1975, due to the recalcitrance of the Senate. In the meantime, Labor proceeded rapidly with other changes to the health care system, all in accord with the belief that the Commonwealth should play a greater and a more active role in social policy and in that important sector, the health services. In February, 1973 the Federal Government's intention to support financially family planning services was announced and a month later the details of a national school dental scheme were made public. In April the establishment of an Interim Committee of the Dental hospitals and Health Services Commission was announced, the Bill to convert it into a Commission receiving the Royal Assent in December. Unlike the family planning and school dental service programs, the Commission's remit was wide and far-ranging and many of its
activities were to impinge on the operation and management of dental hospitals. The Commission had been given responsibility for submitting recommendations to the Australian Government on allocations of both capital and operating funds to develop and maintain health care delivery systems for the benefit of all Australians.This broad mandate included concentration on certain areas which Palmer saw as conversion of policy statements into detailed obiectives and specific recommendations for action, the expansion of health services planning and research, the development of a community health program and the initiation of a dental hospitals development program.

The Commission was composed of three full-time and between four and nine part-time members. Whilst it contained representation from the Federal Department of Health and was serviced by the Department, its members were drawn largely from the health service professions and academic circles. Whilst the Commission's independent status as a statutory authority could be seen as a preemptive move to counter the entrenched interests of the public serviceT the Commission went on to establish a close relationship with the Department. Nevertheless the effects of its composition were important firstly in bringing a wealth of expertise and recent experience to Federal policy-making in health service matters and secondly in legitimising, in the eyes of the health services and the general public, the new and.expanded role of the Federal Government in health. The Commissioners, and particularly perhaps the part-tim Commissioners, represented an important channel.