Declaring that millionaires will pay higher taxes to help fund the scheme,Bandt will urge voters to give the Greens the balance of power in parliament so the party can force the next government to spend more on health.
The party is going to the election with a policy agenda that would raise $687 billion in revenue over a decade and put that toward social services such as income support for those in need.
The dental policy sets out the addition of dozens of items to the Medicare bulk-billing schedule from July next year including diagnostic services,preventative dentistry,periodontics,oral surgery,endodontics,restorative services,prosthodontics,orthodontics and general dentistry.
The PBO,an independent agency that reports to parliament rather than executive government,told the Greens the proposal would cost almost $15.2 billion in payments and another $160 million in department expenses over the four years of the budget estimates.
The cost over a decade would be $77.6 billion to June 2032,the office said. The annual expense would be about $10 billion in the final year of its costing.
As a comparison,the tax offset for workers on low and middle incomes will cost $11.9 billion for one year of tax cuts including the government’s $7.8 billion commitment last year and its additional $4.1 billion pledge in the March 29 budget.
The budget office costing came with a warning that the supply of qualified dentists could not be certain and it had not assessed the impact on private health insurance premiums – a key factor when the big health funds make dental coverage as a key offer to keep customers.