Bill May Pass in MA for Insurance to Cover Acupuncture
We Need Your Help!!!!! This is scheduled for a vote on Feb 4, 2011. The day after Chinese New Year
Hi Everyone,
Wouldn’t you love if insurance was required to pay for your acupuncture session?
The Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine Society of Massachusetts (AOMSM) Legislative Committee has reintroduced a modified version of last year’s HR 4111 to the Massachusetts House of Representatives that will mandate insurance reimbursement for acupuncture services. The new number for the Bill is HD 1593.
The AOMSM Legislative Committee is reaching out to identify those that are willing to advocate for this endeavor. The history of successful legislative initiatives for the Oriental Medical profession both here in Massachusetts and nationally has never been one of deep pockets or large political machines. Success has been due to the advocates, (mostly patients) that have written letters, and made phone calls and have visited Representatives and Senators. They have told their stories of how acupuncture and Oriental Medicine has been a powerful medical intervention in their lives and a tool for healing when nothing else worked. It has been the strength of these stories that has been so compelling that they have, one by one, and state by state, altered the landscape of health care in this country.
Now we endeavor to take it to another level – to make available to the people of this Commonwealth access to a safe and effective health care. Will you help? We need your voice. We need your advocacy in the form of connecting this effort with those legislators that may be willing to assist us in moving this legislation through the house and senate and to the governor’s desk. The connection that you have may in fact be the one that makes all the difference, not only with respect to the enactment of this legislation but to providing individuals across the Commonwealth with access to a medical care that could make a significant difference in their health and quality of life.
Urgent – We have only to February 4nd to enlist cosigners for our Bill –
We need you to act now to enlist cosigners as this first step infuses our Bill with energy and momentum.
Step #1 – go to the Massachusetts Government website to find your rep
http://www.malegislature.gov/People/FindMyLegislator
If you are in Salem MA it is John Keenan
Representative John D. Keenan
* State House
* Room 195
* Boston, MA 02133
* Phone: 617-722-2015
* Fax: 617-722-2160
* Email: JohnD.Keenan@mahouse.gov
Call and Email your Rep ASAP!
Talking Points
Here are points that the advocates of bill HD 1593 can use in both phone conversations and emails. Patients are encouraged to add their own personal story as to how acupuncture has enhanced their health.
Dear Representative ___________,
(Give your name and address)
I am calling/ writing in support of HD 1593, a Bill that mandates insurance reimbursement for acupuncture. And I am asking Representative ________ to be a cosigner for this Bill. As you know, being a cosigner does not represent a commitment to vote in favor of passage of this Bill but rather acts to promote the legislative analysis of the bill’s merits. This bill represents an opportunity for the good people of the Commonwealth to be availed of a medical intervention that is in many cases clinically and economically superior to what is presently available as a covered benefit.
Why This BILL?
1) Acupuncture’s effectiveness is well established:
- Acupuncture has been highly scrutinized – of any medical intervention that can be received for the treatment of pain few if any have received the rigorous scrutiny as acupuncture. An assessment in 1997 by the National Institutes of Health indicated that acupuncture was at least as effective as other interventions in the treatment of a number of conditions.
- Two recent studies looking at all treatments for low back pain, (the most highly reported form of pain complaint) showed that acupuncture rates at the top for clinical effectiveness. As a result of these studies the German and British health care systems now cover this treatment.
- A recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine indicated that acupuncture should be considered as a first line intervention for back pain.
- As a result of a study conducted by the United State Air Force, acupuncture is being used to treat PTSD and as a first line treatment in the battlefield for pain both here in the States and with troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.
- The World Health Organization recognizes acupuncture as effective in the treatment over forty medical conditions.
2) Acupuncture is Cost Effective:
- Acupuncture is a low tech, medical intervention that has been shown to reduce the cost of treatment for a number of conditions.
- The NIH in 1997 recommended acupuncture be integrated into the health care system and that insurance providers and Medicare and Medicaid reimburse for its use.
- A European study on the treatment of post-stroke rehabilitation showed improved outcomes and the savings of thirty thousand dollars per patient.
- A study in Washington State on the use of acupuncture for patients with the heaviest disease burden showed that acupuncture users had lower mean costs than nonusers.
3) Acupuncture is Safe:
- Study after study shows that acupuncture is safe. Compare this to the use of medications that constitute a major cause of death in this country
In conclusion – acupuncture works by any criteria. It is a medical intervention that is relevant to our times. Representative ________, I urge you to cosign bill HD 1593 because the people of the Commonwealth need access to the safest, most effective and cost saving treatments.
Remember to add your name, address and info!
thanks
jeanie
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