The New Taipei City mayoral race has taken up the issue of oral health, in what counts as good news for parents of young children, older residents and the dental industry.

• Su Chiao-hui, the Democratic Progressive Party's candidate for New Taipei mayor, has set up a support group of dental professionals, with several hundred dentists, dental technicians and dental materials suppliers attending. Minister without Portfolio Chen Shih-chung, a dentist by training, serves as head of the advisory panel.
• She is calling for outpatient and inpatient co-payments to be waived for children aged 0 to 6, and for the current free fluoride treatment to be extended from age 6 to age 12, to reduce tooth decay in children and ease the burden on parents.
• Subsidies for dentures for older residents were raised on the spot: up to NT$50,000 for older residents generally, NT$80,000 for lower-middle-income households and NT$120,000 for low-income households.
• The city government will devote resources to encouraging home-visit and institution-visit dental services, filling gaps in medical care in remote areas.
• On the industry side, she plans to promote a "denture ID card" and to strictly crack down on unlicensed dental technicians and illegal dental materials.

Outlook: Concrete subsidy pledges of this kind are set to become a main line of attack and defence in the New Taipei mayoral race, and other candidates are expected to roll out matching healthcare benefits before long.