The Invisible: Two rants about NZ healthcare.

[Freeky]

And yeah, I consider you being you and happy VASTLY more important than your participation in the binary, and I really hope that at some point in the future, at least, our society will create a place for people to live/express their lives in whatever way makes them most fulfilled without pushing body modification as the only real route to personal fulfillment.

Shit like that starts at home, I think.  Acceptance of saying "FUCK what people say about my/your/his/her/their gender.  As long as you are happy, that is what matters."

Just my (extremely uninformed) opinion.

No, I agree with that, completely, except that getting it to start at home is societally vastly more complicated.

Here's how I see it:

Forward thinking parents raise generation of people who genuinely don't care, or aren't bothered by it.  New generation gets all hot and bothered over how big an issue other people make over it, forces government to get the country's shit together.  Government forces conventional thinkers to abdicate their position with legislation against automatic procedures at birth and adding androgeny to the material in sixth grade health classes nationwide.  It becomes mainstream whatever after fifty years or so.

The end.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

And yeah, I consider you being you and happy VASTLY more important than your participation in the binary, and I really hope that at some point in the future, at least, our society will create a place for people to live/express their lives in whatever way makes them most fulfilled without pushing body modification as the only real route to personal fulfillment.

Shit like that starts at home, I think.  Acceptance of saying "FUCK what people say about my/your/his/her/their gender.  As long as you are happy, that is what matters."

Just my (extremely uninformed) opinion.

No, I agree with that, completely, except that getting it to start at home is societally vastly more complicated.

It's one of those weird "societal pressures will influence home environments which influence society" things.

There is a loop, for sure. The loop can be altered, but it takes a lot of internal social pressure to alter it.

[Prelate Diogenes Shandor]

Western society's complete unwillingness to accept androgynes, and its efforts to force them into a binary sex-linked gender with surgery and hormones, is extremely stupid.

THIS

The blessings of Echidna Magna Mater are to be embraced, not shunned.

[Doktor Howl]

I am fucking sick of the healthcare system in this country.

"Doctor, doctor! I had no male puberty! I just grew taller and some pubes and small boobs instead!!!"

"Oh okay, w/e. Now about the whole transition thing, no you can't have hormones without a psych assessment, even though you obviously need hormones of SOME SORT because you didn't get puberty."

"Doctor doctor! I get terrible pain in my lower abdomen once a month and what with my body being all different I'm worried there might be something going on!"

"NO YOU CAN'T HAVE ANYTHING GOING ON YOU'RE A BIOLOGICAL MALE DESPITE ALL THE EVIDENCE YOU'RE INTERSEXED AND NO WE WON'T DO TESTS."

I mean where the fuck do these bastards get off on denying me healthcare services I need? If I had money I could just pay to have tests and shit done but since I don't have money it's not going to happen!?

What the fuck is this shit? All they want is for me to take my oestrogen and be a "normal" straight chick.

Well fuck that! I'm a queer intersexed person! I have tits and a cock, and I think that's great!

And if you bastards don't like it you can suck my dick.

Or kill me.

----------------------------------

Another thing I'm fucking sick of?

The mental healthcare system here. I've been having rapid cycling moods for two weeks, and before that I generally was depressed for about three weeks at a time, with a week or so of happy in between. This happy week was mostly filled with being far too happy and becoming irritable and angry a lot. There's also the mixed kinda moods I'm getting lately. These leads me to worry that I have bipolar, and the symptoms are becoming more severe. (My sister has bipolar II, and my Mom doesn't exactly have stable moods either.) Generally I've avoided medication, but since I relapsed on self-harm a few weeks ago, I decided to try again.

So I say to the Doc that I want an assessment first to be sure it's something that's safe to combine with SSRIs or Tricyclic anti-depressants.

They resist at every turn just because I can't fucking pay for it.

They want me to shut the fuck up, take what they give me, and be "normal".

Well get this assholes, I don't want to be "normal" I just want my mood to stop CHANGING ALL THE FUCKING TIME so I can get some fucking work done!

And yet you won't help me do this because I'm broke?

How is this healthcare? If you won't help me take care of myself!?

Well fucking done New Zealand. This insistence that if you can't pay you can just suffer is one of many things that make me want to slit my throat. And the main reason I don't is because I'm going to keep fighting this awful fucking system.

I'm not going to sit down. I'm not going to take the pill. I'm not going to shut up.

I won't stop until you start caring for people who need help.

Or kill me.

Here, we don't get anything we can't pay for, when dealing with things like, you know, cancer or heart disease.

Life's tough.  Wear a fucking hat.

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

Fuckin people with cancer need to get a second job. */america*

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Well, as a society we're pretty much completely bought into the doctrine of prosperity, so those who can't afford healthcare deserve to die.

[Doktor Howl]

Well, as a society we're pretty much completely bought into the doctrine of prosperity, so those who can't afford healthcare deserve to die.

Thing is, I know some people that are in a pretty bad way.  No desperately-needed chemo.  No desperately-needed dental surgery.  No chance in hell of a heart transplant.  They're just going to die in really bad ways, way too soon.

So folks will excuse me if I don't get all weepy about the plight of the OP.  The world's a fucking tough place, and I think priorities go to people who will die without help, ahead of gender issues, cosmetic issues, or even quality of life issues.

[Salty]

What about quality of life issues that lead to suicide that could be prevented with correct medical care? For example, schizophrenics with no support system who just want a way out?
Presuming of course that correct medical care would actually prevent such a thing.

[Doktor Howl]

What about quality of life issues that lead to suicide that could be prevented with correct medical care? For example, schizophrenics with no support system who just want a way out?
Presuming of course that correct medical care would actually prevent such a thing.

That's not a quality of life issue.  That's a medical emergency.  The inability to interact with the world is not the same as the lack of desire to do so.

[AnarChloe]

I wasn't ranting for sympathy. I was just venting, basically.

I 'm far, far more pissed at healthcare systems for refusing urgent medical needs than I am for my own situation. And that's why I want to change them. Not just for my own sake, but for sake of people who need these systems to work more than I do.

[Doktor Howl]

I wasn't ranting for sympathy. I was just venting, basically.

I 'm far, far more pissed at healthcare systems for refusing urgent medical needs than I am for my own situation. And that's why I want to change them. Not just for my own sake, but for sake of people who need these systems to work more than I do.

What's their track record on cancer treatments?

[AnarChloe]

Well my family had to pay for my mom's chemo and surgery. So I'd say not good.

There's this "high-cost treatment" pool that's meant to be used for that kind of thing, but it's very limited, so only a very few select people get the high-cost treatments without paying.

So still better than many places, but still not good enough.

[Doktor Howl]

Well my family had to pay for my mom's chemo and surgery. So I'd say not good.

There's this "high-cost treatment" pool that's meant to be used for that kind of thing, but it's very limited, so only a very few select people get the high-cost treatments without paying.

So still better than many places, but still not good enough.

I'd agree.

Still better than the USA, that's for fucking certain.  Unless the system is rigged, and then I think you may actually have it worse. 

[Freeky]

Well, I can guarantee it's better than here.  I envy you for having even the basics covered, so that your biggest concern is getting help for your hormone thing.  Half of the things covered by AHCCCS stop being covered when you reach 21 here in Arizona.

[AnarChloe]

I wouldn't necessarily say I have the basics covered. For example flu shots are expensive.

That's the thing about healthcare here, I'm 20 and I can only get certain things for free or cheap, and the selection process for these things is so insanely convoluted that it simply appears random. I mean, I can't get cheaper dental care, even though it's incredibly expensive to have wisdom teeth removed, and as near as I can tell in this crazy mess there is no way whatsoever to get the state's help on things like this. However, a typical NZ tactic is for every region of the country (despite it being tiny) all of the things that are cheaper or free are different. For example up north I couldn't see a doctor or nurse for free. Here in the capital I can see them for free 'til I'm 25. And this as far as I know is the one place where I can do that within the country!

And with all this confusion, the system could quite easily be rigged. Without any standardization of healthcare, there's plenty of opportunity to fuck people over who can't pay for $17,000 back surgery, because the District Health Board can say that's standard, somewhere else.

I'm not trying to claim this is worse than other countries with no coverage at all. But it makes tangling with the health system here a red-tape laden nightmare. This country needs to either give up entirely on pretending it's healthcare is progressive, or do it properly. IMHO.