I strongly believe that alternative therapies need to be included in a single-payer system.  These therapies save money by dealing with chronic conditions and the side effects of surgeries and prescription drugs. These therapies address the whole person (mind/body/emotion/spirit), by less expensive practitioners, with snyergistic benefits beyond the purely physical and with no side effects.

One of the root problems with the current biomedical system is its low-touch, high-tech approach to healing. In this electronic, world-at-our -doorsteps world, people want to paid attention to, spent time with, listened to, understood and touched.  In his landmark 1999 study "Trends in alternative medicine use in the United States 1990-1997", published in JAMA, D.M. Eisenberg reported that over 50% of health consumers use some kind of alternative therapy.  And that was 10 years ago!

It's time to recognize that alternative medicine is part of our health care system, and incorporate it in any national system that is developed.

IS CHANGE.GOV A DECEPTION?

Why has Obama been ignoring the demand of his supporters for a single payer health care system?  Does he have political debts to the insurance companies, HMOs, and pharmaceutical corporations? Government officials don’t worry about “affordable” health care, they get it for free.  We should take health insurance off the backs of employers and have a generalized Medicare system for all citizens and resident aliens.  Are we who participate in this exercise being had?