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One of the main drivers of the pressure for reform of health is the rising cost of health insurance. As affordable health insurance becomes more difficult to find, more people decide that the current system needs fixing. Some blame the high cost of premiums on the margins of private insurers, non-profit or increased obesity rates in America. These factors certainly play a role, however, the main reason for this may be a service expansion plans insurance. A growing number of insurance companies now cover alternative medicine. Alternative treatments include herbs, acupuncture, and chiropractic. Insurers say they are simply responding to consumer demand, but its coverage of these unproven treatments in large increases in health costs for everyone?
In recent decades, alternative medicine has become commonplace. Millions of Americans rely on it to treat conditions that they feel to the conventional medical profession has not effectively addressed. They have had to pay the entire cost of their treatment out of pocket until recently. Aetna and Kaiser Permanente are between health insurance companies have begun to collect most of the tab. The use of alternative services will probably increase, as patients only have a co-payment for low cost. While that is a huge savings for consumers of alternative therapies could be driving the cost of insurance for everyone else.
Under certain circumstances, studies have shown that alternative medicine is effective. However, most alternative medicine treatments have not yet been demonstrated that works. Moreover, more conventional treatment has suffered years of scientific evidence. A visit to a chiropractor instead of a doctor may have economic sense if you have back pain, but not if you are suffering from an ear infection. If a patient is ineffective alternative medicine and then returns to the conventional medicine, his health insurance plan will have to pay twice for the same condition. Resource Usage alternatives such as dietary supplements herbal, unlike the standard prescription may even worsen the health of a patient. Take this hypothetical example: a patient with high cholesterol Lipitor is prescribed, but choose to take supplements red yeast rice (which are marketed to treat the same condition). Supplements the latter is most likely harmless in themselves. However, if the patient used instead of the Lipitor shown, he or she probably will not be treating the underlying disease. As a result, your condition could worsen and even lead to a heart attack or stroke. Your insurance company will be responsible of the aftercare, it would be much more expensive compared to the initial treatment. This is an example of waste that plague our health system.
Some groups are pushing to include coverage of alternative medicine in national health reform bill, believing that the exclusion of professionals constitutes discrimination. Doing so would make the bill even more costly. Democrats are calling for a public choice in part to maximize efficiency and effectiveness of care, this requirement probably would defeat the purpose. Although a third of Americans have used some form of alternative medicine is very doubtful that Congress mandated coverage. Republican politicians could take advantage of the advocates of alternative health treatments and used as an example the horrors of rationed health care. The only problem with this strategy is that the GOP is against the federal government to the nonprofit health companies insurance of any kind of mandate in relation to what he can not refuse to cover (for example, the arrangement of the Democratic bill that would prohibit insurers denying coverage to people with pre-existing medical conditions). On the contrary, believe that insurance companies should be allowed to sell the plans choose health insurance on the open market.
(Photo: Migraine Chick under CC 2.0)
About the Author:
Yamileth Medina is an up and coming expert on Health Insurance and Healthcare Reform. She aims to help people realize that they don’t have to go without a health insurance plan while waiting for a public option, if it ever gets passed. Yamileth lives in Miami, FL.
Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – Could Alternative Medicine Be To Blame for Expensive Health Insurance Plans?
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