I am looking into the history, definitive dates and those involved, of when we, in the United States, were prevented from not able to choose for ourselves our choice of how to treat ourselves ...when the modern medical and pharmaceuticals determined that insurance companies would only pay for them and not allow us to choose alternate forms of medicine
i e: quantum touch, acupuncture, reiki, and other tried and true holistic forms.

Thanks
Peace Love and Harmony To All
Wiremanibew

I will be very interested to know what you find out. My guess is, there was no one time when we lost our right to choose, rather it was chipped away one little "regulation" at a time. One little "payment denied" at a time. One AMA lobbyist at a time. One Big Pharmacy lobbyist at a time. One insurance merger at a time. One Congress at a time.

The woodpile has been stolen, one twig at a time. The mice have crafted their nests very carefully.

Sigh.....

Very well said, Ali!

I'd also be very interested to see what you dig up on the topic ~ it might help people figure out how to rebuild that "woodpile" in America's health care & well-being system.


Ashley

Hi all,

Wiremanibew, I believe you will find the answer to your query (or, at least, the biggest parts of it) in the book, "Green Pharmacy" by Barbara Griggs. It covers the entire history of medicine from Hippocrates to the takeover of the modern pharmaceutical industry, to the recent comeback of natural alternatives. Happy reading.

While I am no fan of the FDA or the current status of our healthcare system, I think there are some reasonable answers to this question. Insurance companies are all about making money. That's their bottom line. In order to make money, they have to keep track of which treatments are most effective and, within that set of treatments, which are the least expensive.

I obviously support the use of energy medicine but I think its effects are too subtle and not instantaneous enough to be convincing to insurance companies. After all, if I have a headache I can take tylenol and it will be gone shortly after. Or I can do energy work on it and maybe it will be gone later, maybe it won't. It's too hard to measure the direct benefit of the treatment. That's often not the case with allopathic treatments.

As another example, which do you think would be most effective against a really serious sinus infection: QT or antibiotics? I would recommend both, but if I could only have one or the other, I'm taking the antibiotics.

It's also very difficult to determine who would administer these treatments. You have to go through an accredited educational program to become a doctor. There are tangible ways to measure the competency of a physician. How do you do that with an energy medicine practitioner? It's impossible. There's just no way to objectively create some set of criteria for certification and then test for those criteria.

I would *love* it if insurance companies would pay for alternative therapies, but it's just not going to happen. It's a stretch for some of them to pay for acupuncture or chiropractic. There's just no way they're going to start paying for QT or reiki.

I do know that Healing Touch is practiced quite a bit in hospitals and in some cases is ordered by the physicians. Perhaps someday insurance might actually pay for that if they see a large enough benefit to justify the cost. The doctors, nurses and patients certainly see the benefit.

Hi Neiby,

I do not feel that it is impossible to prove that QT Works.

I have profound effects with some of my clients. One lady had a vertebra out; I think it was C-5 or T-1, Pain level of ten. I did Core on her for approximately ten minutes, and there was a loud pop of her vertebra going back into position. I core with her for another five minutes to make sure that it was very relaxed and able to stay where it should be. It went from a pain level of ten down to a 0 in that time.

I spoke to Wendyp about this. And she told me that she has had this happen on three or four occasions. And she has had I think seven vertebras go back into position the same way, with a loud pop. And she knows of others that has the same effects with their clients.

This suggests that this is not too subtle and not instantaneous enough to be convincing to insurance companies.

That said, yes, it will be a bit of time before the insurance companies accept QT as good enough to be a remedy for some of the challenges of some clients. But as far as bones going back to where they should be, I have to disagree. Yes on the common headaches, Tylenol is a viable choice. But for the people that have ongoing headaches, like their cranial bones that are out of alignment, QT can have profound effects with realignment. I do not know of any other way of doing this. Perhaps there is ways of doing it, I just do not know of them. If there is, I am sure that it will cost the insurance companies a lot more money to use the techniques. My opinion.

Yes, it is going to take time to convince the insurance companies of this. Just like the chiropractic taking so much time to convince them.

Convincing the medical establishment of the power of QT will be another hurdle that we have to work with. Consider burn patients, I believe that with demonstrations, we will be able to convince this of this a lot faster. Zen and I worked with a lady that had a burn that was a day old or maybe two days old. In forty-five minutes, it went from a 1¼ in. size and oozing down to a dime size and dried up. And it was distant.

Big Pharma is another one; we will have to take our chips back one at a time like Ali mentioned. There are tangible ways to measure the competency of a QT practitioner, as my experience above. But you are right about it taking time. One client at a time, slowly but most assuredly we can do it. Proving it is not impossible. But in some cases it will be a little harder to prove. The “system” is another matter. But with time, I feel it is do-able.

Thank you Neiby, for bringing this up, it is all valid and it gets everyone thinking harder about it.

Enjoy, Dennis

Taken into a much broader perspective - on the scale of humanity's overall well-being - it's high time for the people in direct responsibility for our well-being to HAVE the
control. Not the insurance companies. If enough of the public throws a tantrum on the government, something will have to be done.
If not, our Constitution is apparently null and void.

This is a nation FOR the people, BY the people. It takes the people. And numbers are rising steadily to have a loud enough voice, which is a good thing. All we have to do is know how to use it appropriately, and together.

With a doctor's referral, some major insurance companies cover massage therapy, chiropractic, acupumcture, and Healing Touch (especially for palliative care). I know Anthem BC/BS does, without a doubt, as they paid for everything but acupuncture - but I didn't ask about it, either, so I don't know that they don't cover it. If a major company like that will cover some CAM treatments with referrals, I don't see how it couldn't happen with others. All it takes to start the process is a flood of physician notes on how many suggestions, by patients, for referrals on complimentary & alternative measures. But it takes the patients' initiative to REALLY get the ball rolling with their PCPs, and to be completely serious about it, with supporting legitimate documentation if necessary. That gets the attention of committees, all the way up to the AMA - although it would take some time. Or, patients whom cannot get approved for the types of therapies they feel would be more acceptable for their own well-being should contact their state representatives, senators, even the surgeon general...and be serious about change. Passing along a nice little "nudge" to check out the latest NIH CAM Research would be fabulous.

On the topic of cost-effectiveness for the insurance companies, many - if not more - CAM options are waaaay cheaper than most allopathic treatment options, office visits, etc. For example, if I were to go to the doctor's office for stiffness and soreness in my shoulders, constipation, stress, headaches, sciatica - something I knew and understood where it came from, and wasn't completely strange or frightening - it would cost $70 (average) for the visit and consultation alone; another God-knows-how-much for the tests, labs, etc.; and then the prescriptions. Gotta love those prescription costs! Muscle relaxers, migraine medication, painkillers, IBS medication, etc. are not very cheap to fill, especially if there's no generic available. Going to a massage therapist or a Reiki Master is generally $60-$75. Even adding a PCP referral from an office visit, it would still be cheaper. It would at LEAST provide a cheaper option - for the insurance companies, themselves! If you ask me, in that department, they are cutting their noses off to spite their face. So if it's cheaper to broaden the types of treatment options available without a medication attached, where is the control? Big Pharma. They don't want to lose the money. That's what it all boils down to, but it's backwards...which is frustrating for those of us who want to see more options available.

I believe, with all the research data I've come across the past year, that there's enough substantial proof that CAM works as well as allopathic medicine to warrant a shift in how our citizens are treated, and to be allowed to participate in their treatment. NOT be given only a third of all possible options for treatment, based solely upon the bias that technology, synthetics, chemicals, and surgery are the only ways to heal a condition.

It's OUR bodies. It's OUR lives.

Maybe it's time to use OUR voices to get the point across.

Once that door gets kicked wide open, and with all the studies going on involving subtle energy therapies, the road for QT (and other like it) to be covered would be well on its way to being paved.