When cornered, blame the victim

In Australia, it is widely acknowledged that the provision of dental services for concession card holders has reached crisis point because the federal government, which is a neo-con government, has let it slide -- quite deliberately.

Waiting lists for urgently needed dental treatment have blown out to figures like 27 months. I have been on one such waiting list for more than two and a half years, and two years ago I endured severe pain for one quarter of a year while waiting for treatment.

The front page of my local paper, however, has another theory. The problem, apparently, is caused by the fact that a small percentage of people with appointments don't show up when they should.

Even if this were true, perhaps the "no shows" were too physically or mentally ill to attend their appointment, too poor to travel (the public transport service in my district of Coffs Harbour is woeful and expensive), too poor even to phone. But let's not get carried away with the Advocate's line; the John Howard Government doesn't believe in free health care and would demolish it all if it could. And as long as the public doesn't believe that teeth are part of the body and that health includes dental health, this cynical government (aided by newspapers like this) will get away with it.

Tagged: media, disinfo, disinformation, australia, health