Yesterday I read a Sydney Morning Herald article with the headline: "Mental health scheme is welfare for wealthy" and I saw RED! [View article here: mental-health-scheme-is-welfare-for-wealthy]
One of this country’s leading mental health advocates, Associate Professor Neil Cole (Melbourne University's Mental Health Research Institute and a former consumer adviser to the federal government on mental health) is quoted in the article as saying of the Better Access mental health scheme for consultations: ''It is the worst form of middle-class welfare I have ever seen''. To support his case, Cole provides the example of a couple he knows “with a $14 million mansion and two Mercedes cars who still claim from Medicare for counselling from a psychologist they don't really need”.
