For those who don't pay cash for therapy--if therapy isn't in the realm of health care, health insurance wouldn't pay for it and access to treatment would be even worse than it is now. For people w/o a mental illness in therapy, insurance won't pay for it unless the therapist commits insurance fraud by billing for a diagnosis.

I guess I look at it beyond patient vs. client. I use client because it's more politically correct. But patient does seem more like a healing relationship to me, whereas client seems more like a business relationship. Much of the healthcare industry is moving towards patient -centered care, but it is still called patient-centered care. Not client-centered., or not that I've ever heard...

I watched a video by experts on borderline personality disorder. They said it's undisputably a medical disorder. Classifying mental illness as medical disorders, under a medical model, allows for research and treatments that wouldn't exist if psychotherapy was part of a business model.

Social workers and psychologists often work/research in university psychiatry departments for that reason. It's promotes using scientific methods for research and treatment of mental illnesses. That's why you see so many non-psychiatrist therapists in the field teach and work in psychiatry at universities.

So I think in terms of healthcare vs. non-healthcare, moving away from the medical model will only hurt those with mental disorders.