Why "Alternative Medicine" is the Way If you want real health insurance, put your trust, and dollars, in alternative medicine. That's where the future of your health lies. The trick is to convince the insurance industry that this is where its financial future best lies, too. Regrettably, they do not see the considerable cost savings awaiting their enthusiastic endorsement of alternative medicine, as the following news item indicates.

On January 1, 1996, Deborah Senn, insurance commissioner for Washington State, set a national precedent by requiring all insurance companies to begin offering coverage for all categories of licensed health care. These will include naturopathy, acupuncture, massage, and nutrition, effective when current subscribers renew their policies. Seven insurance companies filed a lawsuit protesting Senn's regulation. One insurance company executive stated that this "would make it virtually impossible to manage health care."

Evidently they haven't discussed the advantages of offering coverage for alternative medicine with forward-looking companies such as American Western Life Insurance Company in San Mateo, California. Instead of waging a reactive, rear-guard battle to protect their presumed financial interests against alternative medicine, insurance executives would be wise businesspeople if they were to spend a minute thinking the news through.

At American Western, insurers are discovering that offering an alternative health insurance program actually lowers medical bills, according to Marcel J. Hernandez, ND, who directs their Wellness programs. American Western now offers a policy that enables holders to make reimbursable medical visits to any of 2,000 alternative practitioners as well as 650 hospitals and 41,000 conventional doctors.

In most cases, policy-holders pay $10 per visit after which 100% of their doctor's fees are paid by American Western; up to $1,000 a year for natural prescribed medicines is covered as well. Their Prevention Plus coverage includes acupressure, acupuncture, Ayurvedic medicine, biofeedback, chiropractic, hypnotherapy, nutritional counseling, EDTA chelation therapy, among other techniques, and users are entitles to 2 - 12 visits per year in each category.

Even better, American Western offers a Wellness Line, staffed by naturopathic physicians, that provides health information on a free 1-800 telephone connection 24 hours a day for advice on physical complaints without actual illness. Inquiries of this kind can amount to 30% - 50% of the average physician's case load. During 1994, American Western received 9,105 calls of which 5,600 were about specific medical problems; of these callers, 20.9% chose to practice self-care rather than visit a doctor, thereby saving an estimated $250,000 in doctors' fees and thus insurance reimbursements, says Dr. Hernandez.

Of the total callers, 23.5% phoned for educational purposes, but many of these may take up self-care later, leading to further cost savings. "We can afford to offer this type of insurance to the public only if our clients take an active role in making their own health care decisions," says Dr. Hernandez. "Education on medical treatment is what makes our programs work."

Education, indeed. Where the majority of American insurance companies willing to do the merest amount of calculations, they would realize that the future of affordable and profitable health insurance lies with alternative medicine.

First, you have a $14 billion ready market as anywhere from 33% - 42% of Americans have consulted alternative practitioners. A great number of people are already using and demanding these services and, in most cases, paying for it themselves. For example, in a poll of Washington State adults, 58% said they would use alternative medicine if it were "affordable and convenient." Even better, in a poll of physicians, 94% said they have referred patients for at least one unconventional therapy.

Second, almost universally, the cost of alternative treatments is less than for conventional services. For example, the use of intravenously delivered magnesium rather than clot-dispersing drugs for heart attacks could save almost $1 billion a year.

Third, nearly across the board, there are fewer complications, side effects, and costly, unexpected medical outcomes with alternative medicine procedures. For example, the annual hospitalization cost of drug prescription errors for conventional medicine is estimated to be $20 billion.

Fourth, you have a clientele that is, in effect, trained by their alternative doctors to take more responsibility for their health, empowered with lists of self-care programs such as nutritional supplementation. As the American Western Wellness Line data shows, one-fifth of clients, when given adequate medical information, can successfully treat themselves for their nonemergency conditions.

The plan emphasizes self-reliance and preventive health maintenance - values the Digest strongly endorses. One way to prevent illness, to develop self-reliance, and to practice self care, is to know your health status.

Do you want to insure your future health? I suggest 3 things. Get your insurance company to start covering alternative medicine. Get informed about the biochemical state of your health through a preventive lab test. Get self-reliant and confident about treating yourself whenever possible.

Burton Goldberg, Publisher
Alternative Medicine Digest
1640 Tiburon Blvd., Suite 2
Tiburon, CA 94920 USA
415-435-7770 / 800-333-HEAL
Fax 415-435-7775

(Reprint, Townsend Letter for Doctors & Patients, November 1997 edition)

Copyright © 1996. The Light Party.

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