Socialists disappointed in own government

In August Universitas published an article on students’ dental health. Dentist Carl-Henrik Gullaksen said he knew of several students who had had to have their decayed teeth pulled since it in general is too expensive to have them treated and repaired.

At the time, both the government parties the Socialist Left Party and the Norwegian Labor Party claimed that they would introduce a yearly maximum limit on dental health expenses at 2 500 Norwegian kroner. Now, however, such a limit is excluded from the government’s suggested state budget for 2010.

– I am a bit disappointed myself, actually, says parliament member for the Socialist Left Party Snorre Valen.

He thinks the lack of specific commitment is caused by difference in opinion between the parties concerning how such a dental health care reform is to be carried out.

– The Socialist Left Party had very detailed plans. The Norwegian Labor Party articulated themselves in far less binding words, says Valen.

According to the Norwegian Labor Party’s Dag Ole Teigen the issue is rather about not promising more than what the government is able to keep.

– This is a large and difficult reform. It will cost 10 to 12 billion kroner, and demands a lot of legal work. It is impossible to phase the reform in during just one year.

Student teeth in poor shape

According to a survey carried out in Trondheim in 2007 32 per cent of the city’s students visit a dentist less than once every two years, mainly because of the high prices. A similar survey has not been carried out in Oslo.

The National Union of Students in Norway work for making dental health care a part of the national health service, and also so students can get discounts. The president of the union Anne Karin Nymoen thinks the governments’ lacking commitment on the dental health care field will make their goal less achievable.

– Issues that are not prioritized in the governmental platform will be difficult to fit into the state budget, she says.

– Another breach of promise

In the new governmental platform Soria Moria II the government claims to have as a goal that the public authorities will gradually claim more responsibility when it comes to dental health care, and create different models with the intention of establishing a ceiling deciding how much money each person will have to pay of expenses concerning necessary dental treatment.

Jon Gåsvatn, member of the Storting for the Progress Party in the Committee of Health and Care, is less than convinced.

– This is another breach of promise from the government, he says.

– They have promised that teeth should be counted as a part of the body, and that dental care is to become a part of the National Insurance just as much as other health care services. All we get now is a non-committal formulation.

Valen in the Socialist Left Party is on his side convinced that the formulation is committal, and that an expense ceiling will be introduced during the governmental period.

– For the first time a goal about an expense ceiling in dental care is included in a governmental platform. Not until the four-year period is over, can we be confronted with any potential breaches, he says.

– Will be tightened

The Progress Party’s Gåsvatn is not convinced by the claim that the government will introduce expence ceilings for dental care in later budgets during in the following period.

– The government has used a record-breaking amount of money in this budget, and they have said that they will tighten up in the coming budgets. It remains to be seen if they have a political ability and will to go through with such an expensive measure, he says.

Teigen of the Labor Party claims it depends on the government’s economic actions in the coming years.

– No government can predict exactly how large their income will be in the future, he says.

Øyvind Bosnes Engen • Translated by Ingrid F. Brubaker