Friday, December 9, 2011

Using a Health Savings Account to Pay for Alternative Medicine


alternative therapy becomes mainstream

Many hospitals now offer complementary tretmana.Web site for the Memorial Sloan-Keating Cancer Center states that complementary therapies are used to "help alleviate stress, reduce pain and anxiety, manage symptoms, and promote a sense of well being."

Some group health insurance plans are beginning to cover more complementary expenses, but still very little to cover these costs in the individual or family plans. Those that cover chiropractic limit coverage of 12-20 visits per year, a few will cover a limited amount of acupuncture. However, very little if any cover hypnotherapy, Reiki, iridology, or faith healers.

Why complementary medicine

conventional medicine practiced by most physicians are called allopathic medicine.Filozofija this system is to treat disease and injury using a neutral method. For example, if you have a fever you can take aspirin to go down, if your cholesterol is elevated May you take statins to reduce it, if you have heartburn you take antacid.RazmiĆĄljanja May was mainly focused on eliminating the symptoms of disease, a primary treatment are surgery and prescription drugs.

, but there are other ways to look at things. Naturopathic medicine is based on a belief in the body's own healing abilities, which can be strengthened through the use of certain foods, vitamins, herbs, or other "natural" treatment. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is based on ancient Chinese theories of balance of yin and yang. Ayurvedic medicine is based on the principles of movement, metabolism, and structure.

Part of the growing use of complementary therapies is a reaction to the costs, side effects, and the philosophy of conventional allopathic medicine. Doctors are a lot of their continuing education from the pharmaceutical industry, and they work in an environment in which insurers and patients are both looking for a quick popraviti.Rezultat that the average 60 year old is now taking 5 regular medications, but there is little expectation that they will drugs ever cure the health problems for which they are used. Many consumers see this, and instead use other methods to try to get to the root of their illness.

which is considered the "HSA qualified expenses"

qualified medical expenses are partially defined in IRS Publication 502, and through various federal court rulings. There is no definitive list, but they are really very few restrictions, while the procedure for the treatment or prevention of certain health conditions. For example, you can use HSA funds to pay for a relaxing massage for your personal pleasure. However, if your doctor has recommended that the massage for specific medical reasons, it is considered a qualified expense. Yoga would not normally be considered a qualified medical expense, but it would be if it is recommended as a physical therapy after some kind of accident.

Some May issue of why the government would provide tax relief for someone to use some crazy energy vibration machine to cure their cancer. But this is as it should be. No, but you should be able to choose which type of treatment you use for your illness. By empowering individuals to manage their health as they see fit, health savings accounts to encourage personal responsibility and help with the purification of a monopoly on health that conventional medicine has for the past few decades.

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