Should Alternative Medicine Be Covered by Insurance? Essay
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Should Alternative Medicine Be Covered by Insurance?
Introduction
Harry Truman, the 33rd President of the United States of America famously wrote "Healthy citizens constitute our greatest natural resource… as a nation we should strive to make good health equally available to all citizens.” (Roberts). Following this line of thought, health insurance which is now widely available to most citizens is a type of insurance policy that provides cover against the risk of medical expenses owing to illness, accidents, or injury.
The earliest primitive form of health insurance is thought to have occurred in the 1890s. The lumber companies in Washington acquired the services of two medical doctors whose primary task was to attend to employees whenever they fell ill. In return, the doctors were paid a predetermined monthly fee, (Rosenthal). However, it was not until the 1920’s that the concept of health insurance gained considerable traction owing in part, to advances in medical treatment and knowledge, (Rosenthal). Medical procedures such as the use of x-rays, blood typing and transfusion, intravenous antibiotics and advanced clinical trials helped portray conventional medicine as an established science with standardized principles and consistent results. To this end, many health insurance providers emerged, convinced that the risks associated with a medical cover were fairly predictable and hence manageable. In this regard, it can be deduced that the promulgation into law of the first federal health insurance programs known as Medicare and Medicaid, took into consideration the attributes of conventional medicine and its universal acceptability.
However, statistical evidence in the 21st century appears to suggest that non-conventional forms of treatment may be gaining popularity in America. A national health survey conducted by the National Centre for Health Statistics (NCHS) revealed that approximately 33% of American adults had used alternative medicine between 2011 and 2012. But more interestingly, these findings were consistent with the results of similar surveys done by the NCHS between 2002 and 2010. Alternative medicine constitutes practices and products that are perceived by users to have healing effects although they may not have proven effective using scientific methods, (Beyerstein 231). However, in view of the fact that alternative medicine is widely perceived by its users as a viable option to conventional medicine, it may be prudent to suggest that health insurance be extended to cover alternative treatment. This essay is therefore intended to discuss whether alternative medicine in its present form, should be covered by insurance.
Alternative Medicine and Health Insurance
As already noted above, health insurance serves as a shield against unforeseen medical expenses that relate to one’s ill health. While this may be true, there is credible evidence to suggest that many Americans still spend substantial amounts of money on alternative treatment. The NCHS survey, also pointed out that patients paid approximately 30 billion US dollars out-of-pocket, for non-conventional forms of treatment. This is attributed to the fact that at least 4 out of 10 adults go outside the mainstream health care system to use alternative therapies. It suggests that there is some level of dissatisfaction about the certain form’s conventional treatment. By the same token, it may also depict those alternative therapies are medically effective. In fact, there is credible scientific evidence to suggest that alternative therapies such as acupuncture, massage, and chiropractic medicine do provide a good deal of therapeutic benefits, (Ernst 43). In view of the above, it is logical to assert that the health insurance system should cover alternative medicine as it does conventional medicine.
Despite increased usage of alternative medicine in America, the treatment interventions associated with it, lack the requisite scientific evidence to support its purported effectiveness. Also of concern is the safety of alternative therapies some of which have been known to cause undesirable long-term effects, (Beyerstein 233). In the absence of standardized medical practices in regard to the duration of treatment, patient referral system, and drug necessity, alternative medicine shall always be deemed to be inconsistent with the long-established health insurance parameters. Such contradictions can pose considerable challenges when it comes to evaluating the patients’ claims. In this regard, a system that does not support timely and accurate verification of claims is prone to abuse. The ultimate outcome will present in form of rising health care costs and a shambolic health insurance system. It is therefore prudent to state that alternative medicine should not be covered by insurance largely because the practice is neither standardized nor strictly regulated.
Conclusion
The concept of insurance is based on the transfer of risk from one party to the insurer. However, the risk must not be created by the acts or omissions of the insured party. The evolution of health insurance in America is linked to scientific advancements in medical knowledge and practice. This inevitably produced important safeguards for the insurance providers in terms of risk assessment and viability of health insurance. Although there has been an attempt to standardize alternative medicine and its associated practices, it still falls short of the standard criteria for insurable risk.
Works Cited
Beyerstein, Barry L. "Alternative medicine and common errors of reasoning” Academic medicine, 76(3): 2001, pp 230-37.
Ernst, Edzard. Alternative Medicine, A critical assessment of 150 modalities, Springer, 2019.
Robert, Nicole. Presidents who changed Health Care in America, Forbes, 17 Feb. 2020
Rosenthal, Elizabeth. Insurance Policy: "How and industry shifted from policy protecting patients to seeking profit”, Stanford Medicine, 2017,
The use and cost of complementary Health Approach in the United States. National center for complementary and integrative Health, NCCIH, 31 Mar. 2016
