Recommendations to the Obama Health Transition Team
From a Healthcare Community Discussion Hosted by Daphne White, CHTP
(Report prepared by White)
We recognize that the current
system of Western medicine has tremendous value and is the system of choice for acute, emergency and critical care. We also recognize the need for prevention and
health maintenance – including health care education and tools for self-care --
so that Americans can remain healthy and minimize their use of this crucially
important yet very costly medical care system.

Tom Daschle: heading up the Obama healthcare transition team
In order to create a truly cost-effective
health care system, we need to create a new paradigm that actively promotes health and wellness, rather
than simply managing diseases.
We must identify and
incorporate holistic health care systems (including energy medicine, acupuncture,
homeopathy, and others) that actively balance and strengthen patients’ immune
and nervous systems, making them more resistant to disease … rather than continuing
to rely solely on a “sick care” system whose strength is managing disease
symptoms after they are entrenched enough in the body to register on an X-ray
or an MRI. A collaboration between
Western medicine and holistic health care systems would achieve optimal results
and potentially huge cost-savings.
In order to radically shift the
outcomes of our health care system, we must recognize that:
·
“Health”
is more than the absence of disease.
·
“Health
care” is not “disease management.”
·
“Prevention”
is more proactive than screening and early diagnosis of a forthcoming disease. Preventing disease requires building a strong
immune system and nervous system, so that the body itself has the strength to
withstand infections and disease.
·
There
is more than one kind of valid health care system, especially when it comes to
well-care and prevention.
·
Western
medicine has become the most technologically-advanced and expensive form of
health care in the world, but it is not the system best-suited for
prevention.
In order to radically shift the
outcomes of our health care system, we must recognize that:
·
Holistic
health care systems are better suited for prevention and well-care than the
Western medical model. Holistic systems
include the Chinese system of acupuncture and herbs; the Ayurvedic system;
homeopathy; Healing Touch and other forms of energy medicine; and others.
·
Holistic
modalities are often better-suited for treating chronic conditions (diabetes,
chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, back pain, and others) that are resistant to allopathic
treatments.
·
Western
medicine is best when used as a medicine of critical care, when all other
methods of prevention and well-care have failed.
·
It
would be cost-effective to use the strengths of each health care system, rather
than referring all patients and all diseases for allopathic care.
Some differences between Western
medicine and holistic health care:
·
Holistic
health care focuses on the whole person, rather than on the symptom or syndrome
afflicting the person.
·
Holistic
practitioners focus on healing the underlying causes of illness and disease, rather than fixing the superficial symptoms of the disease.
·
Holistic
practitioners recognize that “curing” and “healing” are not the same thing. “Curing” is part of the sick care system in
which the focus is upon cutting out or eradicating the disease; “healing”
recognizes an individual can become “whole” or “healed,” regardless of where
they are within the health or disease continuum. (Thus, “healing” can happen even as a person
is preparing to die.)
·
Holistic
practitioners insist that their patients work in partnership with them: they do not undertake to “fix” or “cure” the
patient. Patients must be willing to
make life-style changes in order to heal:
it is not enough for them to just take pills, tests or undergo
procedures. When patients “buy in” to the treatment plan,
they are more likely to heal at the most basic level.
·
Holistic
health care practitioners strive to mediate emotional and psychological trauma
out of the patient’s system whenever possible.
This is important because even life-saving medical interventions (such
as surgery or chemotherapy) may increase physical and emotional trauma.
POLICY
RECOMMENDATIONS:
·
Since
there are a number of valid health care systems (Ayurvedic, Chinese, energy
medicine, etc.), the Obama health plan should recognize all delivery systems
based on outcomes.
·
Government
and government-regulated insurance reimbursement programs must fully cover
licensed and/or certified holistic practitioners (such as acupuncturists, homeopaths,
chiropractors, herbalists, energy therapists, manual therapists, and others), and
allow hospitals and clinics to have full access to their services and
treatments. This is already being done
in Europe and Britain,
where health care costs are lower and outcomes are generally better.
·
Patients
should have a choice of primary care practitioners: MDs should not be the gate-keepers between
patients and holistic practitioners. Most
MDs have not been sufficiently trained in holistic modalities and often don’t
know what patients or conditions might respond best to which holistic therapies.
·
An
Integrative Medicine Advisory Panel should be created to advise legislators and
policy-makers on ways to bring holistic and integrative health care practices
into the health care reform plan. Such a
panel should draw on the expertise of such organizations as the American
Holistic Medical Association, the American Holistic Nurses’ Association, the Preventive
Medicine Research Institute (Dr. Dean Ornish), the Osher Institute at the
Harvard Medical School (Dr. David Eisenberg), the Osher Center for Integrative
Medicine (University of California in San Francisco), the Duke Integrative
Medicine Center, The Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine at the University
of Arizona (Dr. Andrew Weil), the Scripps Center for Integrative Medicine (San
Diego), Healing Touch International, and other similar organizations.
·
The
National Center for Complementary and Alternative
Medicine (NCCAM) should develop protocols that measure the outcomes and costs
of allopathic treatments for specific diseases, compared to holistic treatments
for the same diseases.
·
NCCAM
should be required to develop outcome-based research protocols that are
consistent with holistic health care.
Holistic practitioners treat individuals, not diseases: as such, they don’t treat every patient the
same way. Randomized, controlled
clinical trials are not the best way
to test the way these multidimensional modalities and practitioners work: they are reductionist in nature, and exclude
a lot of what makes these practitioners and their treatments effective.
·
As
this research becomes available, Americans should be educated about the
different health care systems, and the strengths of each one.
COST
SAVINGS
·
Encouraging
a diversity of health care options, especially those that are holistic and
preventative in nature, would dramatically lower the cost of health care
coverage and result in a far healthier population.
·
The
new health care plan should not award financial incentives for the use of
unnecessary and invasive medical procedures.
Rather, the plan should provide incentives for those health care systems
that keep their clients healthy and that minimize the use of expensive medical
tests and procedures.
·
Health
care costs should be “captitated:” health care providers should receive a set
amount of money per patient, with the goal of keeping the patient healthy. This system works in Europe,
where physicians receive bonuses for keeping their clients well, not for
performing extra procedures.
We must move away from our
current, expensive system of disease management and toward a system of primary
and holistic care. This is much more
cost-effective and leads to a healthier population. The new health care plan should not simply
continue to funnel billions of dollars into a high-overhead, for-profit health
care industry that is clearly broken.