Naturopathic Medicine is the Treatment of Choice for the Uninsured

The United States Census Bureau annually reports statistics on the uninsured. According to its most recent figures, in 2008 there were 46.3 million people in the US (15.4% of the population) who were without health insurance.

Many of the patients that come and see me as a naturopathic doctor are not insured, orthers have insurance but come to me knowing that I don't take that as a payment. Some of these relationships started with the either the nervous question as to whether I accept insurance or a letter letting me know that they don't have insurance. In these notes they wonder if they can still get naturopathic care.

Both clients that don't have insurance and those that wonder if I accept insurance, have the same concerns.

These concerns come from the same place, fear of the unknown. I understand these feelings. No one wants to pay for a cost that they have no idea what the total will be. They think, what if this doctor sends me for $1,000's of dollars of tests, how will I pay.

These concerns are understandable, but they are the same as looking down as you cross the street to notice the stain on your shirt as you get run over by an 18 wheeler truck. Let me explain why.

First of all the treatment you get from insurance is not the treatment that will get you better. Doctors that are locked into an insurance treatment model are very restricted in what they can do.

They are restricted in their license as to what they are even allowed to do. This is called "standard of care". If the doctor does use the standard of care protocols they are subject to being dropped by their insurance carrier and may not get coverage in a malpractice case. So they won't do it. The doctors that do make recommendations outside standard of care are often persecuted by medical boards or even sued by their insurance companies. So in a nutshell a doctor taking insurance often is actually prevented from helping you get better. Even they might not realize the subconscious influence this has on their practice.

Additionally having insurance and being covered does not mean that you are really covered. Recently my son sprained his wrist and we went to the emergency room. I asked when I went in about insurance, and gave his insurance card if we were covered and I was told that he was completely covered.

A month later I received a bill for $1,500 for his care. I received this bill from a billing service in Tennessee. Yes, the emergency room was covered. The physician's assistant was not. The x-ray was covered, but the x-ray interpretation done via internet was not. Simply put, when you deal with insurance you are working with a system that profits by not covering you, or by making it as difficult as possible for you and the doctor to get reimbursed.

The doctor's office doesn't care about you anymore, they are billing from Tennessee, the billing service doesn't care about you. And the costs are unpredictable.

The most expensive treatment is the one that doesn't work.

Let's face it. If the conventional medical model had worked, you would not be reading this. This practice is about doing whatever we need to do in order to get people better. So whether you have insurance or not in this practice doesn't matter, we don't work with insurance. That being said, we don't have a billing service, nor do we work with a collection agency. I have never, in 17 years, sent a patient a letter saying "you owe me this". I am very proud of that. This is medicine, and that means that if I take on a client they get the service they need. It has never not worked out.

If I need to be paid for something I get to look you in the eye and tell you why. You get to look me in the eye and tell me "ok" or that you need some help, some time, or want to try something else first.

If I want you to do a lab test I have to explain it to you. We decide together if it makes sense based on your situation right now. If not then we pick a different path together. In years of practice we have never not been able to figure something out that works.

Even though I understand these concerns I know that the bigger concern has to be the desire to get well. Nothing affects your ability to be a productive human being more than being ill. I can say this having been there myself.

When I first was becoming ill with ulcerative colitis I made sure that all of my doctors were covered by medical insurance, I went from doctor to doctor, getting worse even though they were all covered by insurance. The last medical doctor I went to was in a fancy Park Avenue office and was covered by insurance. He told me that I had only one option, and that was to have my colon cut out and go on immune suppressants for the rest of my life.

Luckily for me I gave up on both insurance and the conventional approach to healing.

I went to a non-covered naturopathic doctor and began to heal my body. So I walked all the way up to the edge of that cliff myself. I hope for you or the person you are reading this for can find that inspiration inside of you to believe that something else is possible.

Naturopathic medicine is not expensive, chronic illness is expensive.

I am lucky enough to be blessed with two full practices, but I can tell you that very often naturopathic medicine can help you being to turn the corner on even very chronic conditions for a few hundred dollars. A very small price for doctors that have gone to a specialized four year medical school and may have worked with hundreds or thousands of patients.