The government wants to save on dental care for young people

The government wants to save on dental care for young
full screen From 2025, the rules for free dental care and who can receive double dental care allowance will change. Archive image. Photo: Martina Holmberg / TT

23-year-olds will lose free dental care. From 2025, the government wants to lower the limit for free dental care to 19 years.

– We want to create dental care that is provided more according to need and prioritizes those with poorer oral health, not least elderly people, says Minister of Social Affairs Jakob Forssmed (KD).

Today, dental care is free for everyone up to and including the year you turn 23. The year you turn 24 you have to pay for it yourself.

Now the government wants to lower the limit, so that free dental care applies up to the year you turn 19.

The Minister of Social Affairs justifies the reduction, among other things, by saying that there is a lack of capacity in dental care.

– This general approach that you should have complete, free dental care up to the age of 23, it displaces dental care for people with poorer oral health, says Forssmed.

He points out that this was also what the inquiry into more equal and need-based dental health came to.

Free up resources

By being less generous with free dental care for young people, the government expects to reduce costs by SEK 450 million a year.

To “free up resources”, as the Minister of Social Affairs says, is another reason why the government wants to change the rules.

– It is important to create room for a reform further down the line in terms of high-cost protection, says Jakob Forssmed.

In Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson’s (M) government statement earlier this week, an investigation was promised to strengthen dental care’s high-cost protection to more closely mimic what exists in other care. Elderly people with the worst oral health must be prioritized, said Kristersson.

Expensive reform

The wording was directly taken from the Tidö agreement where M, SD, KD and L have agreed to review the high-cost protection. An issue driven by SD and is an expensive reform to implement.

Forssmed expects the inquiry to be appointed during the parliamentary year, i.e. before next summer. But it is unclear when a changed high-cost protection could be in place.

Another change proposed for 2025 is to abolish the double dental care allowance for everyone between the ages of 24 and 29. Today, they receive SEK 600 per year in grants instead of SEK 300. But from 2025 it will disappear and instead it will be the 20-23-year-olds who lose free dental care who will receive a double contribution.

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