Not more than two weeks ago, a media frenzy played out - not unlike those we’ve seen all too many times before. As politicians pirouetted and backflipped around the $20 GP fee, the population waited, glued to their screens, tablets, phones and papers, waiting to find out the final outcome.

The dance was clumsy and futile. And the winners? Well, I’m not entirely sure.

To put it in a little perspective, here’s how the whole shenanigan went down.

Tuesday 13th: $20 GP fee revealed, set to kick in as of 19 January 2015

Wednesday 14th: Labour and crossbenchers vow to block the $20 GP fee in the senate

Thursday 15th: Health minister, Sussan Ley, announces that the policy will be dropped

What a week! But we’re still far from the end of the story. A $5 cut to the rebate for standard GP visits (announced in December 2014) is still due to take effect on July 1. Royal Australian College of General Practitioners president Frank Jones called on Ms Ley to freeze the cut and consult with doctors, but Ms Ley has stated she is committed to introducing a “price signal of a modest co-payment … for those who have the capacity to pay".

This begs two questions. One, what exactly is being signalled by co-payments and medicare cuts, and two, what constitutes the “capacity to pay”?

It could well be argued that cuts to medicare and increased costs to patients signal a lack of governmental care for those most in need.

Let’s now, just for a moment, play ‘what if’. What if the $20 GP fee had really gone through?

In a response to the initial announcement, Dr Michael Levick, Chair of General Practice at the Victorian branch of the Australian Medical Association, spoke to the Daily Telegraph about his concerns that the increased costs would hit the poor and under-privileged the hardest.

“It’s going to affect the people with mental disorders, the people with drug and alcohol abuse, migrants that haven’t got jobs yet, refugees and all the underprivileged in our community,” he told reporters.

In terms of mental health, the effects of the $20 GP fee would have been significant, even if not applied to GP mental health care plans.

For those already diagnosed, regular visits to the GP are required to get repeat prescriptions – and these come around more often than you might think. Some drugs (antipsychotics in particular) are under repeat prescription restrictions, requiring a visit to the GP for every script. These visits, as you can imagine, fall well below the 10-minute appointment time, meaning patients could have been whacked with an extra $20 potentially up to every month.

Of course, even if patients had the ‘capacity to pay’, as judged by Ms Ley or their wallets, these additional costs would have put yet more pressure on patients’ willingness to get treatment. With only 35% of people with a mental health disorder accessing health services, could we really have afforded yet another roadblock?

Clinical Psychologist, Dr Gemma Russell, voiced her concerns about increases to patients’ costs, future potential cuts to the Better Access scheme, and the larger effects of cuts to mental health.

“Without a system that effectively provides mental health care, the ramifications are likely to affect every aspect of society, from the individual, their family, businesses, to large industry,” says Dr Russell.

“The consequences of untreated mental health disorders include personal financial burden and major economic costs to the community, as well as significant and debilitating personal suffering.”

Thankfully, for now, it looks like mental health has dodged a proverbial bullet in this round. So, for now, we can stop playing ‘what if’.

There is, however, a disturbing trend of cuts and removal of support services in a psychological climate that is increasingly demanding more. And with almost half of the Australian adult population experiencing mental illness at some stage in their life (45%), this writer thinks it’s a topic too large to ignore.

So what can you do?

1. Stay informed

The Australian Psychological Society reports on key developments to the Better Access scheme on this page. Go there, sign up, and stay up-to-date.

2. Take action

Sign an online petition and join the ‘Alliance for Better Access’ crew. (Note: I’m not an official affiliate of this group. I just think they’re doing great work!)

3. Be a pal or, alternatively, don’t be an idiot

Be nice! Give someone a hug. Share a personal story.

If you can’t bring yourself to be actively supportive of mental health and the people it affects, at least don’t be an idiot about it. Terms like spazzo, psycho, loony or any of these 250 labels used to stigmatise people with mental illness are not fun, nice or cool. That said, if you got this far, you’re probably not that kind of person, so good on you.

For more information about mental health in Australia, visit Sane Australia or any of the other wonderfully supportive organisations in this wide brown land.