Medical Insurance covers quackery.

[Sajit]

The policy covers hospitalisation expenses for the treatment of illness/injury provided hospitalisation is more than 24 hours. Pre-hospitalisation expenses for 30 days and post hospitalisation expenses for 60 days are also payable.

Day-care treatment - The Medical expense towards specific technologically advanced day-care treatments / surgeries where 24 hour hospitalisation is not required.

Ambulance Charges for shifting the insured from residence to hospital are covered up to the limits specified in the policy.

Ayurvedic / Homeopathic and Unani system of medicine are covered to the extent of 25% of Sum Insured provided the treatment is taken in the Government Hospital.


So we are paying higher premiums for snake oil remedies.

[Ajita Kamal]

(11-Jun-2010, 12:07 PM)Sajit Wrote: So we are paying higher premiums for snake oil remedies.

What do you the the best approach to tackling this problem is, Sajith?

[Sajit]

(13-Jun-2010, 12:36 PM)Ajita Kamal Wrote:

(11-Jun-2010, 12:07 PM)Sajit Wrote: So we are paying higher premiums for snake oil remedies.

What do you the the best approach to tackling this problem is, Sajith?

Since this is faith based, people will still resort to such so called alternative medicine or quackery.

Insurance companies need to have separate insurance policies for these so called alternative treatments or it is be included as an option with additional premium. Clubbing it all together ensures that even people who do not subscribe to such quackery end up paying premiums for them.

[Ajita Kamal]

Quote:Since this is faith based, people will still resort to such so called alternative medicine or quackery.

Insurance companies need to have separate insurance policies for these so called alternative treatments or it is be included as an option with additional premium. Clubbing it all together ensures that even people who do not subscribe to such quackery end up paying premiums for them.

That sounds like an excellent solution! Essentially, the people making the more informed choices should not be encumbered by those who aren't. Unfortunately the insurance companies see that there is a lot of money in this. As long as enough people want these quack procedures, the insurance companies will continue to legitimize the whole thing. And meanwhile, the companies selling the quackery are looting the people and will continue to deceive them until they are forced to stop. Many people will suffer simply because they have not been exposed to all the facts about homeopathy, after being fed shovel fulls of pseudoscientific bullshit by the "alternative medicine" industry.

There is the option of campaigning to have insurance for homeopathy (and other nonsense) banned like in the UK, but that will not happen anytime soon in India, for multiple reasons.

So, I definitely think that a middle ground is necessary here. The insurance industry must be targeted in the short term, but in the long run we must address the root of the problem, not just the symptoms. I realize I'm starting to sound like a broken record, but it keeps coming back to education.