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About Me
- dsm
- Biostatistician, Biology and Philosophy Faculty, Lacrosse Addict
Posts
11 comments:
From my perspective, I truly believe that publicly funded programs should not pay for alternative services. There are two imperative reasons that we need to consider. First, alternative medicines are lacking the scientific proof of safety or effectiveness.
Second, there’s barely enough money in the public program to pay for treatments and services for people who already need them now. Although many people believe in alternative services, there has never been any scientific or reliable evidence to support the effectiveness of these types of practices. If companies knew they could get away with putting their assumption of a magical cure onto the shelves without it being tested, can you even imagine how many new and improved treatments would be shoved out into the public? People who prefer alternative services are those who do not have much knowledge about science and medicine. With all these alternatives our health care system will crash and burn there will be too many risks leading to less and less people. The majority of these people will go see doctors and be forced to deal with whatever sickness or condition they have with over the counter meds. Overall I am against the publicly funded health programs paying for alternatives because it a huge risk that they shouldn’t take and no one will benefit from. We need to carefully and wisely explore all our options.
If someone said that ingesting 24 karat gold cured their cancer most people would feel this is a ridiculous idea. First of all as far as I know there is no research to back up their claim. Secondly I know of no way that this would benefit their health. This is the same as alternative medicines that have not been researched. They may cure people or they may not the problem is there is no scientific evidence to back it up. Research is a crucial part of the pharmaceutical industry. Even though studies on new medicines are not done for prolonged periods of time there is at least research to explain how effective it is at treating a condition.
Some alternative medicines can be very expensive, some obviously do not work. An example that was used in class was colloidal silver. Even though colloidal silver is said to be a cure all it was not effective in disease prevention. The man that took the silver sadly was not able to prevent heart problems and prostate cancer. He is now using conventional medicine to treat his conditions. If these methods truly do not work then a publicly funded health program would be wasting money that could go to treatments that do work. This would not be ethically or financially responsible. This is the main problem I have with alternative medicines that have not been researched. Publicly funded health programs already have problems with having enough resources for everyone. Using expensive and/or unreliable alternative medicine would be a waste of resources.
If there was research and documentation to prove that an alternative medicine treatment did work I would be okay with a publicly funded health program using it. This would be a definite benefit if it cured something we have no cure for now. It would also be a benefit if the side effects were less than conventional treatment now available. As of yet not many alternative medicine techniques have proven to be effective or have even been researched at all. So overall I feel that these methods should not be used in publicly funded health programs.
Alternative Medicines for most people seem to be the easy way out of possibly paying for something that could cost them three times the amount that they would pay for something that was tested on in research and proven to work. Unfortunately, that’s just it. No one really knows if alternative medicines really work. Sometimes it’s worth paying more for something that works than taking a chance on a product that won’t do anything for you. I don’t feel that publicly funded health programs should pay for alternative services and treatments. I do feel that it would be a waste. There’s no scientific research backing up that these alternative medicines even work. Some may and some might not, but I don’t feel that it’s worth finding out.
Who really knows what kind of an effect these alternative medicines will have on people. There not tested, why put a product out there on the shelves if it hasn’t been proven to work. People will believe anything these days. It’s not right to mislead people into thinking that something may work for them. Later on it might be harder for people in general to differentiate a proven product versus something that hasn’t been tested. I feel that alternative medicines are just “ideas,” that haven’t been fully evolved into anything solid. If these alternative medicines were being funded, then that’s money that could go to other medicines that have been proven to work and show scientific evidence to back up that it actually works.
Why give someone a product that they have no idea in what it is really and how it could possibly work even if it did. It’s more logical put a product out there that can actually significantly improve or save someone’s life. There’s already so little money out there in the medical industry that needs to be properly distributed amongst different departments that need the money to continue putting out there guaranteed product.
Alternative Medicine to me it will not work because it something that scientifically has not been proven. I do not agree with and I believe that those that have no idea about it would just go with whatever they are told. Which does not make any sense. I have noticed living in America for the past 12 years that Americans relay on their doctors or phsyicians and do not read anything they trust what they are told and that should not be the case. The alternative services are not guaranteed and on the shelves without getting tested so in that case how do you know that what you are relaying on is safe? I really dont know how this will help health care systems it will just make it worse and more and more uncureable diseases would take effect. As a society everyone needs to understand what they are getting into before making decisions.
Alternative medicine
Should publicly funded health programs pay for alternative services and treatments that have not been tested in controlled clinical settings? Why or why not?
In my opinion, I do not believe that publically funded programs should pay for alternative services because they have not been tested enough to even know if they are safe or effective. There is not enough money available for services that are tested and approved for us to be taking away that money to spend on treatments that could maim or kill without proper testing and approval. I understand when someone is sick or dying and they are told all conventional treatments have failed, for them to try to search out anyone who says they can cure them with some expensive treatment that has not been proven to help. However, there are many people out there saying they are helping when they are just trying to get rich on someone else’s pain and suffering. The resources of the publically funded programs are already stretched to breaking point. With our economy in the shape that it is, they are cutting health programs everyday that are proven and needed, but there just is not enough money to go around. To spend that money on expensive and unreliable treatments is just a wrong decision to make. Sometimes the welfare of many has to be put before the life of a few. If the research can be proven then the people will be more willing to accept other forms of treatments. Until then we cannot be expected to pay for other unproven treatments.
Throughout the past couple year’s Alternative medicine has been making its mark in the shelves and media. Despite the attention it has been getting there’s not much we know on how good it works compared to conventional medicines that have been approved by the FDA. In this day and age people are trying new trends this new medicines may seem perfect to some people. Alternative medical doctors say these methods of medicine work better than taking shots, pills or drugs. Conventional doctors say these new medicines are dangerous and bogus because not many tests have been done to prove they actually work in which I agree with them.
Health insurance companies do not cover but only approve if their willing to pay higher premiums for these alternative medicines. Alternative medicine is growing every year and it’s leading to publically funded programs to pick up the tab in which I think its waste money. It’s better to invest in medicines that have been approved by the FDA and have already been tested to work. To accept these alternative medicines is like taking a step back to medieval times to rely on herbs and animal stews to cure us.
These alternative medicines have not been proving to work and for all we know it could cause more damage to a person. But today people are willing to believe and try anything new if it’ll cure them from their disease especially if their on the verge of dying. People are also going to end up paying double for these medicines because their new and that will be very profitable for the companies promote more of these shenanigans That is why the public needs to get more educated about alternative medicines before trying them out.
After researching this topic, I feel that publically funded healthcare should not pay for alternative medicine. The main reason is that there is no scientific bases to support their use. In addition, there is no current FDA regulations on the products. I would only support those who have undergone clinical trials.
I do feel that alternative medicine that can be proven in clinical trials to be effective should be covered. "For example, spinal manipulation for some lower back conditions would be covered. Antioxidant vitamins would be covered for people with macular degeneration, but not for the general population to whom it can be harmful. "
There are many homeopathic doctors who use the so called natural methods. While many of these methods have been used for centuries, there really is no medical trails that have been conducted. If this were to happen, I feel that it would put many naturopaths out of business and would surprise many a grandmother. As an example, my mother in law swear that by ingesting cinnamon capsules you will lower your cholesterol. I have yet to see a study and have yet to have my doctor recommend that I take cinnamon capsules. I guess you can say that I am a skeptic when it comes to alternative medicine. I think many people believe in old wives tales and the placebo effect is what really ends up working. The same is said for the so called Lemonade diet. Does lemonade, Cheyenne pepper, maple syrup and water really cause weight loss. Yes it does, because your basically starving yourself. However, I do not see many Medical Doctors putting their license on the line for homeopathic remedies.
Yvette Ferguson
I think publicly funded health programs should pay for alternative services and tratments to an extent. There should be a limited dollar amount that can be spent on a particular treatment per
diagnosis. If these treatments have been proven to work, why not? A controlled clinical setting may be needed for more serious medical conditions but those less extensive should be able to get funded without those studies. Just because a clinical study has not been conducted on it does not negate the effectiveness of an alternative service of treatment. There are plenty of occassions when traditional methods did not work for a patient. Should an unsuccessful treatment that has been tested in controlled clinical settings be publicly funded?
There are plenty of inexpensive homeopathic cures and processes that have been proven to work. Non not in a clinic but in real time, real life situations. People have used alternative methods for generations and those methods still are effective. The old adage "an apple a day keeps the doctor away" has never been proven but this promotes healthy eating. Can anyone object to that? Taking an aspirin everyday to regulate the heart or eating a particular type of cereal to lower cholesterol, isn't this the same as
practicing medicine. Medicine is trial and error and we seem to be okay with funding that, and that gets to be super expensive.
Alternative practices such as chiropractic care, acupuncture or other methods that could be considered as fringe medicine has its uses. Even chiropractic care has made a mark and held its own after not being considered a "real"
practice at the start. My point being is that every attempt at curing illness deserves the chance to be tried and funding should not be a hinderance when it is available publicly, alternative or not.
PP10
Alternative Medicine
I do not thing that alternative medicine or treatments should be funded by public funded health programs. A person that decides to use these services that have not been tested in a controlled clinical setting is doing so at their own risk. Publicly funded health programs should only pay for treatments of drugs that have been tested and approved. There is a reason why drugs and treatments are tested before made available to people, it is for our safety, so if we put our health at risk by taking not tested products then we should be personally responsible. Controlled clinical tests are very expensive as it is and having the health programs pay for alternative services or treatments means less money for the medicine tests. Because alternative medicines have not been proven to actually work or cure we also don’t have any information on what effects they may have on the long run either negative or positive. Alternative medicines tend to be cheaper than tested medication but the risks are not worth the couple of cents less. People should listen to the recommendations by the FDA and use controlled and tested medicines. But the public funded health programs should pay for alternative treatments only if and when they are tested under a controlled clinical setting and approve by the FDA.
I don’t think that publicly funded health programs should pay for alternative services and treatments that have not been tested in controlled clinical settings. Because I think that if these programs are going to pay for something it should at least be something that has been clinically tested. These publicly funded programs are paid for by the public and by our tax dollars so why should we allow them to pay for these services without them being tested. The reason why they should be tested is because we don’t know what affect these services will have on the people who use them or if there can be long or short term side affects. I don’t disagree with alternative medicine I just think that these services should be tested I don’t think that the publicly funded programs should be paying for these kinds of things because that money can be used for other things that have been tested and for other medical services that at least they know were they come from and what consequences they can cause on the people who use them
Publicly funded health programs should pay for alternative services and treatments that have not been tested in controlled clinical settings; if its life or death situation where the patient don’t have any choice to be treated with alternative medicine. First of all, it is better to know that all the medicine are natural and can't be harmful for your organism Complementary therapies are often used in palliative care or by practitioners attempting to manage chronic pain in patients. Complementary medicine is considered more acceptable in the interdisciplinary approach used in palliative care than in other areas of medicine. From its early experiences of care for the dying, palliative care took for granted the necessity of placing patient values and lifestyle habits at the core of any design and delivery of quality care at the end of life. If the patient desired complementary therapies, and as long as such treatments provided additional support and did not endanger the patient, they were considered acceptable. Advocates of alternative medicine hold that the various alternative treatment methods are effective in treating a wide range of major and minor medical conditions, and that recently published research proves the effectiveness of specific alternative treatments. In addition in a case of life or death situation trying these types of treatments and services as last resort could actually be most beneficial. Some individuals may only be able to use these other treatments as opposed to the new latest and greatest, also using these types of services may also be more cost effective. If evidence over time shows that they are just as effective as other drugs then why not start here. After all nothing is clinically proven until we start somewhere.
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