When assessing the state of America’s health care system, people speak of the costs, and the gap between a person’s salary and his or her ability to afford health care coverage. In truth, we what have is an everything gap: an alternative medicine gap, a mainstream medicine and medical practice gap, a medical research gap, and a pharmaceutical industry gap. What we need is better collaboration and research among all of the relevant practice and research specializations in the health care and alternative medical professions. This would allow for ongoing testing and research of alternative medical practices by mainstream scientific institutions, and possibly lead to a more effective and affordable health care model.
Today, it can cost a cancer patient approximately $2600 a month for an insurance policy on the open market. For some cancer patients the only way to afford the rising costs of health care is to follow the advice of their social workers, and move into a shelter to qualify for Medicaid.
We need changes in the way the medical industry conducts its business, and to encourage this change we will all have take an active approach and make our voices heard. As a start, patients could request that more alternative medical treatment options be made available along with, and in collaboration with, their doctors’ traditional practice methods; this would be a more productive and safer approach than having the patient seek out an alternative medical practice professional and receive treatment without input from their primary treating physician. Without collaboration, unsafe treatment practices could be responsible for driving up insurance costs by complicating a patient’s medical condition. On the other hand, use of well-tested alternative medical procedures would help reduce health care costs and likely benefit the patient’s well-being.
Health insurance providers also need to work together with alternative medical practice specialists and primary physicians, and not assume that all alternative medical practices are ineffective or not to be taken seriously. Medical research has not sufficiently tested many alternative practices, such as energy healing, although medical schools and institutions are now providing alternative medicine training, as noted by Deborah Mitchell of Emaxhealth:
“Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, University of Maryland School of Medicine/Center for Integrative Medicine, and the Rosenthal Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine at Columbia University are now offering course work in this area. More than 75 percent of medical schools in the United States include coursework in alternative medicine.”
Hopefully this trend will continue.
Continued in Part 2.
Article comments
1 - Dianne
I recently found out that if a small company has an employee with cancer, when the company benefits contract comes up for renewal, the health insurance companies hike the group rates for the employer because of the person with cancer. This tends to cause employers to be tempted to find ways to lay-off the sick person because rates are just too high - especially for smaller businesses. Big Health is not interested in health - only in money.
Note: I have not verified this except through talking with a number of people including business owners who have gone through it - is this common practice, or just a fluke?
2 - Jet Gardner
There was a big story on NBC news tonight about women with breast cancer being dropped by insurance companys on any excuse, and then spreading the news to others so that the victim can't get insurance from any of them.
It's ridiculous.
3 - peter sabbagh
Thanks for your comment Dianne - I do not know anyone that has experienced a lay-off due to a major illness. One never knows!
4 - peter sabbagh
Thanks Jet, didn't see the show, although this sounds like very aggressive behavior by the insurance industry. Not sure what they have to gain by spreading personal info to other carriers, unless the industry has formed alliances with each other to financially protect themselves.
5 - German guy
A few things that really annoy me about the insurance system: 1. It does not cover natural methods of cancer treatments 2. The cost of normal medical radiation treatment can be tens of thousands of dollars. If you can not afford insurance cover, then you really have no chance.
6 - Curtis Landry
I have a daughter when at the age of 10 was diagnosed with Renal failure. Ever since then the rates for our insurance have been rising higher and higher. And doctors keep dropping our insurance to boot and we have to change doctors over and over again. I wish money was not always an issue. I understand the need for profit but not at the expense of a childs life.
P.S. Daughter has had kidney transplant for 4 years now and is doing great. Thank you Doner who ever you are.:)
7 - Peter Said
I think insurance should cover all the relevent expenses of the child. You right that money is not always an issue , but it is necessary too.
8 - Alberto Halabe Bucay
I publish a work about the efficacy of citric acid as a cancer treatment, the reference is: Halabe Bucay A.Hypothesis proved…citric acid (citrate) does improve cancer: A case of a patient suffering from medullary thyroid cancer.Medical Hypotheses, Volume 73, Issue 2, August 2009, Page 271. So far, 27 patients with cancer have improved after taking citric acid orally, most of them, with terminal cancer.
9 - shark
My comments about this series are in part 6
10 - shark
from the article:
"...Medical research has not sufficiently tested many alternative practices.."
Let's be clear; "alternative" -- by DEFINITION -- means they have not been scientifically tested and verified.
When that process is complete and affirmative, then they become "traditional" practices.
That's how medicine works.
BTW: If the research indicates "alternatives" are ineffective, then they remain "alernatives" and lots of dupes and true believers continue to waste money on them.
see "The New England Journal of Medicine -- Echinacea" for more
11 - Kurt brigliadora
While I admire your enthusiasm to find a cure for cancer...I must bring to light the fact that all the money that's been "thrown" at this, for more than fifty years,has not significantly dented this killers impact on patients.We need to ask ourselves if the "chemotherapy" manufacturers-- lobby against! changing the care approach; as to keep them forever in the black...
12 - kurt brigliadora
Why have we not changed the Care protocol for the cancer treatments in this country? Since the 1960's the survival rate has increased only minumal...of course it depends on what cancer u develope, but from what I understand farrah fawcet had to leave this country for her treatment,just to extent her life for 6 more months...How about we cure the dam thing or at least get 6 ,more years? lets increase our success 10 fold from here or are the big pharma companys going to "buy up" the cure! and shelf it for 20 more years ? so that they can keep pedaling their exsisting non-performing outdated drugs...Is the judge in your corner?
13 - Alberto Halabe Bucay
I alredy published a second article bout the effectiveness of citric acid as a cancer treatment, the reference is: Clinical report: A patient with primary peritoneal mesothelioma that has improved after taking citric acid orally.Bucay AH. Clinical Research in Hepatology and Gastroenterology. 2011 Feb 21. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 21345759. Thanks.
14 - Artz
Yes, Dianne, I too heard about that, though it may be isolated instances.