Bought Out: Mental Health for the Lower Income Earner

 Greetings,

When a person has mental health issues they are often told to go and seek assistance. In some cases, this can be solved through a simple phone call, in other instances it requires long-term mental health support from a psychologist or psychiatrist. The number of these individuals being recognised has only grown over the past couple of years, which means it should be a "boom time" for psychologists and psychiatrists, and it would seem, like any other occupation or any other business, they are going to forget the reason that they are there and take advantage of the situation, leaving a percentage of the population behind.

Now, you will be told by many that there is a "safety net" for those who cannot afford to pay the full price of these professionals. That Medicare will has a rebate for the money that you initially pay for a consultation. The problem is that a person has to have the money for the consultation in the first place before they can get the rebate. Low income earners and those on social welfare payments most often do not have this kind of money to begin with.

So there are a set of Medicare programs and fee structures so that people on these social welfare payments can access different services without the out-of-pocket expenses that they can't afford. These are what are called "bulk-billing" programs in many instances. The problem is that there are fewer and fewer mental health professionals who accept bulk-billing as an option, even for people on social welfare payments, regardless of their situation. It is almost impossible to find a psychiatrist who bulk-bills, indeed they will not even perform an evaluation of a potential individual bulk-billed, even though the Medicare code is present for such a thing.

Now it would seem that psychologists are following the same pattern as their learned colleagues. A person on social welfare could previously organise to have 6 sessions with a psychologist, with the possibility of extending it to 10 should it be required, each year on a mental health care plan. Effectively these sessions would be organised for the patient bulk-billed with the psychologist in consultation with the general practitioner so the best was being done for the patient. Now, it would seem that these are even being rejected by some psychologists as well for fee-paying arrangements. Fee-paying arrangements that those of a lower socio-economic status cannot afford.

It would seem that rather than "doing no harm" as the Hippocratic Oath requires the doctor, and the psychiatrist is certainly a doctor, they are also certainly doing no good at the same time. It would seem that the almighty dollar rules the day again and being healthy in the case of mental health is only something that the wealthy are allowed to have access to and the lower income will be left, until something drastic happens. Why is some catastrophic event required before something is done?

Low income individuals are, once again, being bought out of health.

Cheers,

Henry.