Keeping up with specialist bills and why beauty therapy is more than skin deep

A Grattan Institute report indicates that over one million Australians a year are delaying or skipping specialist health care because they can't afford it. Specialists do vital work, and they're highly trained. But uncapped fees means costs can keep growing and people can't keep up. What can be done to balance the scales and what is the reality for the specialists? New research has outlined the urgent need to better equip the people who become our de facto therapists — the beauticians, hairdressers, nail techs —with the tools to do this heavy emotional labour. If you're married, did you keep your own surname or take the name of your betrothed? It's a highly gendered and changing social norm, so what does our surname actually say about us?