After much petitioning here in NZ we finally got the age lowered to 45, for free mammograms, it was 50, to 65 , now it is 45 to 70, which makes far more sense, my mother was 68 when she had her BC, it often strikes later in life.

We have in NZ what we call a Community Services Card which allows people on lower incomes and beneficiarys much lower Doctors fees and prescriptions, it is around 30 to 35 dollars for a visit to the Doctor with it and like another 10 to 15 dollars more without it, but the scripts is the big save, we pay only 3 dollars per item and nothing on repeats, however up until some years ago scripts were free, so we took it kinda hard at first., without the card it can cost anything from 15 dollars per item, it is however hard on a limited income even with these benefits, we paid out over 100 dollars in two weeks for two of us to visit the doctor and one was a child, they get cheaper rates.

At the moment it will cost 25 dollars for a smear taken by a Nurse, and for the mammogram 120.00.

I have private medical insurance, which covers surgery only and that costs us around 1200 per year for my family of four., we struggle to pay it, but it is worth every cent, I don't want to have to wait on a waiting list for a cancer operation or whatever and risk my life.