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Will a visit to a naturopathic doctor be something that could be covered under the new health care reform bill?

If not will it ever be considered legit enough to be covered under most insurance plans especially state or federal ran medical assistance programs. I know my mid wife who was a naturopathic doctor too that I had while I was pregnant ended up being covered by a DSHS medical coupon. But for some reason I was thinking restrictions are tighter now. If your under any of those kinds of health care plans that means naturopathic medicine is just not accessible to you, right? Unless you pay entirely out of pocket. Will this always be the case or do you think things will hopefully change one day where naturopathic medicine is looked at as being as valuable alone or along side regular medical practices that it will be covered by any and most plans? Or maybe it is already and I just didn't know...

Clementine asked in Alt Medicine about 1 year ago | Report
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  • P1000628_small
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    There is nothing in the bill that specifically includes NDs, or excludes NDs. You are right to acknowledge that when it comes to federally funded healthcare dollars, like DSHS, there needs to be a federal recognition of naturopathic medicine for coverage to occur.

    DrSomol answered in Alt Medicine about 1 year ago | Report
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  • 4_small
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    No one really knows exactly how the elements of the health care reform bill will be implemented. There are some very promising components to the bill that could increase the accessibility of naturopathic medicine to people in your situation, but the final policy has yet to be written. For one, the bill emphasizes the importance of primary care and preventive medicine and will bring millions more patients back into the ranks of the insured -- this will strain a system that already has a shortage of primary care providers and will force plans to look for well trained providers to fill this void, potentially opening up plans like DSHS to NDs. Also, the bill has non-discrimination language in it which may make it harder for insurance plans to discriminate against NDs in their coverage policies. These are just a few areas that may open doors for more ND accessibility in the future.

    CMDodgeND answered in Alt Medicine about 1 year ago | Report
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