Bachtel: The unintended consequences of reforming health care

I must admit I haven't read the new health care legislation, but it appears that the purpose of the initiative is to implement a system to cover the medical costs of uninsured people to assist them with basic health care. A large portion of uninsured people tend to have lower incomes and educational attainment levels, although not all uninsured people are in this category.

The wild card in the debate is how the new system will deal with the already privately insured and what it will do to the existing health care system. No one really knows, but whatever the outcome, fundamental changes will accompany the new policies.

Demographers like to speculate on the unforeseen consequences that accompany social and economic change. With regard to the health care issue, we are headed in several new directions.

Regardless of a person's income or education, the use of alternative medicine - herbal remedies, acupuncture, aroma therapy, specialty diets, etc. - is a widespread and multimillion dollar enterprise. According to the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine in 2006, Americans spent about $34 billion on alternative medicine. American's spend about $113 per person on alternative therapies.

Canadians, too, are avid users of alternative medicine and in 2006 spent about $8 billion, or $237 per person, on nontraditional therapies, according to the Fraser Institute. Canadians have significant government health care intervention and regulation, so it is not surprising they seek alternatives. The difference in the per capita amounts spent on alternative medicine between the U.S. and Canada, however, raises the vexing question of "why" do these large differences exist?

Canada and the U.S. have a number of similarities and differences. The differences, which include culture, ethnic diversity, rural-urban population distribution and type of government really are a matter of degree. So do Canadians spend more on alternative medicine because of the difficulty in obtaining traditional medicine or due to basic U.S.-Canadian differences? I suspect that when one commodity or good is limited, denied or difficult to obtain, individuals will search for and use alternatives.

The use of alternative medicine and practices has long been used by a wide variety of individuals and groups. My own case is a perfect example. I have multiple sclerosis, which does not have a cure. Nevertheless, I am continually bombarded with recommendations advocatin

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