From: hound23x@gmail.com   
      
   Did the health care law give 'elevated legitimacy' to alternative medicine?    
      
   Half-True    
   Homeopathy, acupuncture and aromatherapy "have been given elevated legitimacy   
   under the Affordable Care Act."    
   -- Jonah Goldberg on Friday, February 13th, 2015 in a column in "National   
   Review"    
      
   Did the health care law give 'elevated legitimacy' to alternative medicine?    
      
   By Louis Jacobson on Tuesday, February 24th, 2015 at 2:16 p.m.    
      
      
   Beata and Alex Karaszi, left, watch as their son Alex Karaszi gets an   
   acupuncture treatment from Dr. Laura Weathers in Tampa. (Kathleen Flynn/Tampa   
   Bay Times)    
      
   Dr. Debra Hoffman manipulates the vertebra of patient Paige Montgomery during   
   a chiropractic session. (Willie J. Allen Jr./Tampa Bay Times)    
   Editor's note, Feb. 25, 2015: One of the core principles of our work, and the   
   work of all journalists, is to contact the subjects whom we are writing about.   
   In this fact-check, we didn't meet our high standards. While we emailed Jonah   
   Goldberg five days    
   before publishing our fact-check, we never followed up with a phone call or   
   another email to see if he had seen our questions. And while we also attempted   
   to contact Goldberg's source, Kevin Williamson, we did so only by Twitter.   
   That's not good enough    
   in our book. Goldberg has since responded to this fact-check via a column on   
   NationalReview.com. While there is nothing in his response that changes our   
   Half True rating, we should have made every attempt to reach him so he could   
   make his points prior to    
   publication. For that, we are sorry.    
      
   PolitiFact has published literally hundreds of fact-checks on President Barack   
   Obama's signature health care law, the Affordable Care Act, so it's always a   
   surprise when a reader stumps us with a fresh claim they've run across.    
      
   Recently, a reader sent us a column from the conservative National Review that   
   said the law gives preferred treatment to non-traditional forms of medicine.   
   The column was from Jonah Goldberg, citing the work of another National Review   
   writer, Kevin    
   Williamson.    
      
   "As my National Review colleague Kevin Williamson notes, 'Everybody wants to   
   know what Scott Walker and Sarah Palin think about evolution, but almost   
   nobody is asking what Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama think about homeopathy,   
   acupuncture, aromatherapy    
   and the like.' Even though such remedies have been given elevated legitimacy   
   under the Affordable Care Act."    
      
   We wondered: Is Goldberg right that the law gives "elevated legitimacy" to   
   such non-traditional techniques?    
      
   It turns out there's a solid core of truth to the claim, but also some   
   important caveats. (Neither Williamson nor Goldberg returned inquiries for   
   this fact-check.)    
      
   Where the claim has a point    
      
   In recent years, the use of "complementary and alternative medicine" (also   
   called "integrative health care") has grown substantially.    
      
   A survey by the National Institutes of Health found that roughly four of every   
   10 American adults and one of every nine children uses at least one form of   
   alternative medicine. That category includes such fields as acupuncture,   
   chiropractic, diet    
   therapies (such as the Atkins, Ornish, South Beach or vegetarian diet),   
   homeopathy, hypnosis, massage therapy, tai chi and yoga.    
      
   Following a lobbying campaign by alternative-medicine practitioners, and   
   assistance from then-Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, several provisions favorable to   
   non-traditional forms of medicine were inserted into the health care law.    
      
   Here are provisions that stand to benefit complementary and alternative   
   medicine:    
      
   * Section 3502 establishes grants for medical homes. The law says that the   
   interdisciplinary teams supporting such homes may include "licensed   
   complementary and alternative medicine practitioners" and "doctors of   
   chiropractic."    
      
   * Section 4001 establishes the National Prevention, Health Promotion and   
   Public Health Council and, in turn, an advisory group on prevention, health   
   promotion, and integrative and public health issues.    
      
   * Section 4206  creates a pilot program to provide at-risk individuals who use   
   community health centers with "individualized wellness plans" designed to   
   reduce risk factors for preventable conditions, including integrative health   
   techniques.    
      
   * Section 5101 creates a National Healthcare Workforce Commission and expands   
   the definition of the health care workforce to include integrative health care   
   practitioner, licensed complementary and alternative medicine provider, and   
   doctors of    
   chiropractic.    
      
   * Section 6301 establishes the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute to   
   fund research that determines which medical techniques work best. Some of the   
   institute's research addresses alternative medicine, including a study of   
   "non-pharmacologic    
   strategies to reduce pain and depression," as well as efforts to compare   
   acupuncture and cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia among cancer   
   survivors. The institute is also funding studies of "relaxation and   
   mindfulness exercises," massage, yoga,    
   meditation, and breathing exercises.    
      
   All told, the institute is spending $4.1 million for studies involving   
   alternative medicine, or about 3.5 percent of its funding to date on this type   
   of study. Findings from this research could become significant, since many   
   alternative medicine    
   therapies have not yet faced rigorous scientific testing -- a key prerequisite   
   for getting insurance companies to pay for them.    
      
   Potentially the most far-reaching provision, however, is Section 2706.   
   Alternative-medicine advocates say this section stipulates that as long as an   
   alternative-medicine practitioner is fully licensed by a state, insurance   
   companies must reimburse them    
   just as they do medical doctors. (Literally, the section says that "a group   
   health plan and a health insurance issuer offering group or individual health   
   insurance coverage shall not discriminate with respect to participation under   
   the plan or coverage    
   against any health care provider who is acting within the scope of that   
   provider's license or certification under applicable state law.")    
      
   Put all of these elements together and Goldberg has a point.    
      
   Where the claim overstates the case    
      
   That said, it's important to note some limitations in how the health care law   
   is treating alternative medicine in practice, rather than in theory.    
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)