Finding Professional Homeopathic Care

Will Insurance Cover Homeopathic Care?

by Dana Ullman, MPH ©2005

(Excepted from Consumer's Guide to Homeopathy, Tarcher/Putnam)

Because the vast majority of professional homeopaths in the United States are licensed professionals such as medical doctors, osteopaths, chiropractors, acupuncturists, naturopaths, and others, most insurance companies pay for their care. Consumers are encouraged to review their own insurance to determine the coverage of chiropractors, acupuncturists, and naturopaths, because many policies allow only a limited number of visits and some do not cover any visits at all. If your policy does not cover the care you want, rather than immediately switch insurance companies, contact the company or your insurance broker and inform them of your interests. Only when consumers make their desires heard will the insurance market change. It is also good to know that there are now some insurance companies that specialize in coverage of alternative health care. Look for their advertisements in health magazines or consult an insurance broker.

When a homeopath is not a licensed professional, it is unlikely that an insurance company will cover his or her care, except in instances when a medical doctor prescribes homeopathic care and the insurance company agrees to pay for specialty care when prescribed by a medical doctor.

As mentioned earlier, the first interview with a homeopath usually lasts 60 to 90 minutes, and therefore, homeopaths commonly charge more than the usual office visit fee for this lengthy interview. Some but not all insurance companies pay for these higher first visit fees. In such instances the patient may be required to pay a portion of the homeopath's fee.

Insurance companies will not cover the small expenses of homeopathic medicines because they tend to pay for prescription drugs only, and homeopathic remedies are primarily over-the-counter drugs.

The best source of homeopathic books, tapes, home medicine kits, and software is:

Homeopathic Educational Services

2124B Kittredge St.

Berkeley, CA 94704

(510) 649-0294

(510) 649-1955 (fax)

E-mail us

DANA ULLMAN, MPH, is one of America's leading advocates for homeopathy. He has authored 10 books, including The Homeopathic Revolution: Why Famous People and Cultural Heroes Choose Homeopathy, Homeopathy A-Z, Homeopathic Medicines for Children and Infants, Discovering Homeopathy, and (the best-selling) Everybody's Guide to Homeopathic Medicines (with Stephen Cummings, MD). He is the founder of Homeopathic Educational Services, America's leading resource center for homeopathic books, tapes, medicines, software, and correspondence courses. Homeopathic Educational Services has co-published over 35 books on homeopathy with North Atlantic Books. Dana writes a regular column for the wildly popular website, www.Huffingtonpost.com (to access these articles, click HERE!).

For people interested in some of Dana Ullman's earliest writings, you can read his undergraduate thesis at U.C. Berkeley in 1975 on "Human Learning." Honor students at UC Berkeley who wish to have an independent major (and who do not want to have a regular generic major) are required to write a thesis.  This paper on "Human Learning" provides insights into Dana's early synthetic and integrative thinking.  The beginning of the article and its definition of "science" may be of special interest.  Also, Dana creatively chose to use his own invented pronouns to replace the masculine emphasis of "he," "him," and "his," with "che," "chis," and "cher."