Medicare and ‘worrying’ trends for the future of psychotherapy

You might have seen in the news recently about the sad state of affairs within the Medicare system. After some very good reporting and some brave whistleblowers stepping forward, Medicare isn’t all it’s ‘cracked’ up to be. The ABC and a large number of other journalists are starting to uncover the deep corruption in the Medicare system.

These findings are beginning to expose modern medical practice to be as exploitative to human suffering as the current financial and political system.

Medical practitioners take a Hippocratic Oath to ‘do no harm’ however financial abuse and over billing seems to have become a ‘normative practice’ especially with these ‘super clinics’.

I remember when I was completing my social work masters degree hearing about how ‘superclinics’ were really going to ‘benifit’ the community and provide more ‘robust’ health outcomes for patients. It seems that these superclinics are now the leading ‘culpable’ agents in the exploitation of the Medicare system.

Remember how Medicare was introduced in this country and how it worked for those ‘ordinary’ Australians who couldn’t afford top health care premiums? I do, and it was to all intents and purposes a system that ‘worked’. Like so many other reforms that can take up to a decade to be legislated (think more recently the NDIS),they work for a time and then become hopelessly corrupt.

My real concern now is that if the medical practitioners that we traditionally give so much of our ‘trust’ to, in society can fall prey to greed and corruption, then what about psychology?

Most people see a Medicare rebate or plan through a GP to see a psychologist or mental health accredited social worker as a plus, an advantage, but is it? What’s possibly stopping psychologists and social workers from exploiting the Medicare system also? In fact if you’ve ever gone to speak with a clinical psychologist or social worker perhaps instead of really taking the time to listen to you, all they do is tell you what’s ‘wrong’ with you and assure you if you keep coming back to see them then you’ll get ‘better’ sound familiar? #mentalhealth #psychology #socialwork #community #healthcare #work #future #medical #health #medicare #corruption #ndis #abc #counselling #people #psychotherapy #society #lawmakers