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irishsj said:
I have just been in chat saying how lucky we are here in NZ with our health system which is more or less the same as in the UK. Ppl take it for granted, or they grumble about the cost of healthcare (if only they knew, after reading all of the above)! The mental health system here, esp in the (small) city I live in, is fantastic. If you are put under the community mental health team you are assigned your own case worker (nurse), you have access to the psychiatrists, the social worker (who does needs assessments which allows healthcare workers to come into your and help with housework, domestic chores, personal aide, whatever you need), and all sorts of support groups etc, AND ALL FOR FREE. Where I live too, there a 2 day centres for mental health consumers- for a gold coin donation ($1 or $2) I get to go to the gym 5 days a week, and I could be taking part in organised activities etc also. As the song in my head is going... "We don't know how lucky we are". (Oh, and medical insurance isn't needed at all either...)

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yea we're not too bad ... but i dislike how i have to pay $60 for a ten minute dr visit ... when I was a student it was fabulous, free dr and $3 prescriptions.

sure i earn quite well but i also know that the income threshold for free healthcare and subsidised prescriptions is NOT that high - e.g., we have a Community Services card for lower-income families/students etc - it's good if you can get it, but i've interviewed (through work) people who *just* do not qualify - so their medical expenses (whether they be physiological or psychological) are still very steep. They may be able to do OK day to day, but an unexpected illness can blow the budget.

I have fairly comprehensive health insurance through work, but I would *never* claim anything to do with depression or anything through that policy - too risky (and some policies don't fully cover any medical conditions like depression or PTSD).

I do prefer the British system - even when I'd only just moved there to work it was entirely FREE and all you do is subsidise the prescription charge (a few pounds). I don't know about the more comprehensive psychiatric component though (like mental health nurses etc) in either country.

We are lucky in comparison to the USA, certainly, but it's not all roses here either.