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The Threat against Alternative Medicine

By Doug Bandow on 3.18.10 @ 9:38AM

I'll admit that I'm not particularly convinced of the efficacy of alternative medicine, but that's fine. I don't have to seek it. However, people who want to try alternative treatments should be free to do so.

They aren't likely to be able to do so with health care "reform."

Argue Curt Levey and Jim Turner:

We are the heads of two non-profit organizations - one of us liberal and the other conservative - who are concerned that the impending healthcare legislation will negatively impact holistic and natural medicine and limit the healthcare choices of the people who consume it.

Because alternative medicine is highly effective in treating many of the chronic conditions which resist treatment by establishment medicine -from arthritis, heart disease, and chronic pain to insomnia and attention-deficit disorders - nearly 50 percent of Americans regularly use some type of alternative therapy, according to a study by the Journal of the American Medical Association. In fact, the study found that visits to alternative practitioners, for treatments ranging from acupuncture and chiropractic to herbal remedies, outnumber all visits to primary care physicians by almost two to one. Additionally, more than 100 million Americans "regularly consume dietary supplements as a means of improving and maintaining healthy lifestyles," according to a U.S. Senator who has worked on related legislation.

Nonetheless, "alternative therapies (including acupuncture, chelation therapy, biofeedback and holistic medicine) are not covered by Medicare," says the federal government. The same is true of Medicaid. Nobody expects better coverage for alternative treatments when, as a key part of the reform legislation, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) determines the "essential health benefits" that insurance plans will contain. When supporters of the legislation speak of a right to health care, they mean a right to establishment medicine.

Anyone who values freedom of choice in medical treatment had better speak up now.

View all comments (13) | Leave a comment

The Republican Heretic| 3.18.10 @ 1:34PM

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Judith| 3.18.10 @ 2:51PM

Sr. McCain: I thought we were a nation of MEN and not LAWS! I used to hold you in high respect and awe. You have fallen off the ladder with this crazy, unconciousable S 3002! Who do you THINK you are? Hitler took over Germany first by taking control of the Banking and then the Automobile industry and then the Health - you are following right in those same footsteps! Are you crazy?! The government has NO RIGHT to tell ME how to HEAL MY BODY as I see fit!! This is NOT the governments business - and YOU OF ALL PEOPLE SHOULD KNOW THIS! What in the world were YOU and your FATHER and your GRANDFATHER fightingfor? OUR RIGHTS AND FREEDOM TO LIVE UNDER OUR CONSTITUTIONAL FREEDOMS - BY CHANCE - OR WAS THAT A LIE AND A FLUKE AS WELL! GOD HAVE MERCY ON YOUR SOUL AND SHAME ON YOU FOR DOING THIS TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE THAT USED TO LOVE AND ADORE YOU!!
I AM A CONSITUTIONALIST - YOU ARE NOT.

dr kill| 3.18.10 @ 9:24PM

Shame on you for even allowing this article to stand. If you want to use some ethno-medical bullshit therapy, then fine, but pay for it yourself you idiot.

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Virginia| 4.5.10 @ 8:29PM

I believe that people should be allowed to have alternative forms of medicine if they determine that is the best avenue for them. In my own experience, I was very successful in using a common natural remedy. Thank you for the post.
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