NHI won’t cover ‘Bush Medicines’ – Hon Ronnie W. Skelton
It was during the Eighth Sitting of the Third Session of the Second House of Assembly that Representative of the Third District Hon Julian Fraser RA asked a question on behalf of the Representative of the First District Honourable Andrew A. Fahie on Thursday August 14, 2014.
“In recognition of natural medicines could the Minister for Health and Social Development please inform this Honourable House if the National Health Insurance will develop criteria and standards that will recognize and address issues such as natural medicines and services provided by naturalists? And if not, why not?” asked Hon Fraser.
In response, Minister Skelton said that the NHI is designed to provide sustainable health finances to ensure that everyone in the public and private sectors have health care when they need it.
However he said that the benefits package under the NHI is for services that are backed up by scientific evidence and feasibility studies. He said that the bush medicines are not yet considered so supported.
“Madam Speaker the NHI benefit package does not make provision for natural medicines at this time. However where there is scientific evidence of effectiveness and safety of alternative treatments, consideration will be given to the establishment of criteria and standards to recognize those natural based medicines and services by qualified neuropathic doctors for inclusion in benefits packages on a case by case basis,” said the Minister.
However when pressed by Hon Fraser as to whether those studies are necessary since people in the Far East have been using these alternative medicines for years, Hon Skelton responded, “Madam Speaker I must tell the Hon member I do drink ‘bush’ to help me with my cold and flu but that’s not the real reason for having the health system basically administer this kind of thing without proper scientific research, that would not be the right thing to do.”
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