Medicare pays for everything I don’t need and nothing I need or want to sustain my health as I age.
For example Stem Cell Therapy using your own bone marrow has a 30 + year track record of success and is less expensive and invasive than knee replacements. If insurance covered Stem Cell Therapy, or even Plasma injections, for joint pain and inflammation it would be even more effective and far less unnecessary knee replacements would be performed.
Functional Medicine MDs who have been to Medical school know how to diagnose issues traditionally but have an expanded toolbox for effective remedies that Medicare won’t enable or cover. Medicare PPO protocols need to pay for functional Medicine MDs of choice in order to enable longevity through new anti-aging research and treatments. IV treatments or Infrared Light Therapy are expensive and hard to get access to, but if Medicare included these instead of or in addition to $10,000/month prescription drugs, people would be able to get access to these proven treatments at less cost and high probability of efficacy. Another example is common hypothyroidism where the patient isn’t converting T3: it make no sense to prescibe Levithyroxin, which is T4, to a Y3 patient as a standard yet Medicare will pay for T4 and not compounded T3 for a personalized solution. Traditional MDs have no clue about effective thyroid treatments. I know more about it than any Medicare Dr I’ve tried out.
Medicare Drs need to be required to be trained in the benefits of vitamins and supplements on healthy aging, instead of ignoring it or having negative attitudes. I’m not suggesting Functional Medicine instead of traditional care, I’m suggesting a whole new emphasis on healthier aging and longevity through Functional Medicine long before traditional care becomes end of life care.
Another example: Silver Sneakers is too limited and pays for classes, not real strength training: seniors need a plan to cover a gym for resistance and strength building, maybe even 1-2 sessions with a personal trainer, not just a class they can’t do or will never use. Not many gyms even offer Silver Sneakers and forget the online class which is not available to non-tech oriented seniors nor more ambitious seniors.
No one needs Functional Medicine MDs and treatment options more than people on Medicare who cannot afford high medical co-pays for expensive drugs and surgeries that could be avoided with earlier Functional Medicine interventions. No one needs more enlightened Medicare Doctors than Medicare customers. Since Medicare is required and automatically deducted from all Social Security checks, it ought to be a requirement to give Medicare patients access to Functional Medicine Doctors and treatments that are more effe tive and reduce disease care costs and needs. It’s common sense.
Tell me about it! I went to my Lupus doctor and asked if there were any vitamins I could take that would be beneficial and that nurse looked at me like I was speaking another language. They didn’t even bother giving me a token “You can take vitamin C to boost your weak immune system.” 
Perhaps Dr Oz can be of service by monitoring efficacy of treatments. So much of conventional medicine is seriously off target: Cholesterol. Thyroid management. Estrogen. Infertility. Cancer. Diabetes. Osteoporosis. Autoimmunity. They are a disease-treatment industry, which has it’s place. We also need a health improvement and disease prevention industry. I want government to research and eventually support this. Functional Medicine has windows into better approaches, but the door of inquiry needs to see beyond them. Pharmaceutical medicine has the status of an established religion. We see mandated medical treatments, also insurance coverage and payments for dead-end medical interventions. For my health concerns, I’d prefer seeing a biochemist/ physiologist rather than an MD.
One program claimed to measure outcomes. What they tabulated was the number of prescriptions clients were taking. Consider instead the country that mandated magnesium and potassium enriched salt, and nearly halved their heart disease and stroke incidence. (Dr. Richar Moore’s book).
There are claims that the Medicare reimbursement standards have had bad effects on available services. Dr Oz may see useful revisions. He may identify needed legislation.
Meagan is so right! People on Medicare need preventive, functional medicine as much or more so than others. I have been using it for many years and received more help from alternative care practitioners than I ever got from conventional medicine. Now I’m on a fixed income and can’t afford to pay out of pocket for treatments that aren’t covered. Even with an Advantage plan that supposedly includes coverage, its inadequate. I get only 20 appointments per year split between naturopath, chiropractor, and acupuncture.
I need to use the naturopath for my doctor because there are no functional medicine practitioners who are in network with my plan. Anyone who has chronic pain needs more than 20 appointments per year!
Providers are so disgusted with Medicare and waiting too long for payment that they won’t file for me. That just tranfers the problem to the patient. There are few functional medicine providers in network. I’ve had 5 providers quit the plan so I had to find new providers. And the Medicare limited coverage for chiroprators does not include all the modalities that skilled chiros are capable of providing such as the Cox Technic. Isn’t the point to relieve the pain? I had to pay out of pocket for that technique.
Medicare would rather pay for surgery but there is no quarantee that surgery will relieve pain. Sometimes it leaves the patient with more pain or restrictions.
The best thing about my plan is coverage for fitness, but it sounds like that is not the case for everyone.
Medical schools train doctors to treat everything with drugs or surgery so most doctors are ignorant of nutrition, herbal remedies, homeopathy, etc. I’ve been helped more by homeopathy than any surgery. One botched surgery on my foot has likely caused my low back pain.
Every time something comes up doctors want to radiate me immediately. When I explain that I already have a tumor in my ear caused by cell phone radiation, they treat me like I’m stupid to be concerned about radiation. Who is stupid? I was thrown out of a dental office because I refused dental xrays when I had no issues and just wanted to get my teeth cleaned.
Anyone who thinks Medicare is great hasn’t had to use it much, doesn’t have chronic pain, or has the money to pay out of pocket for what is not covered.
I’m sorry for your experience with Medicare and your ongoing suffering. Unfortunately it is the norm, not the exception. Given what I’ve had to pay out of pocket I believe the Medicare system could lower overall costs and reduce our monthly required contribution if they integrated some proven alternative treatments and enabled functional medicine doctors to participate as primary care physicians. Just allow them to be in network and cover their appointment would be a huge benefit to all. Most people can afford supplements but not high cost drugs (especially when the side affects of those drugs can actually cause more costly treatments and the negative spiral into declined health.)
Ditto. If you have a disease, you want excellent disease care and the USA health care system is very good at that in general. However I’m paying monthly for disease care that I don’t yet need and yet I can’t afford the appointments for the doctor I want to go to. Insurance will cover blood tests, but a functional medicine doctor will order completely different blood tests.
I once took my blood test results from a functional medicine doctor to my first Medicare Doctor appointment. She looked at it and said “this is not my protocol” and handed it back to me. She wouldn’t even look at all the valuable information that detailed test provided. I can read those tests so I know! I promptly left that Dr and have yet to find a new Medicare Doctor that will work with me within my personalized needs. I’m doing fine outside of the system so far. But I shouldn’t have to pay for it if its not meeting my needs.
Ashley, you probably know more about how much Vitamin C you need than they do. Ask AI !!
I believe that people who have to pay for medicare but are proactively using functional medicine and naturopathic care to stay healthy ought to get some sort of discount or % back at the end of the year. If you don’t use disease care you shouldn’t have to pay for it.
Love it, you are correct, all great points.
Those on Medicare should be able to utilize not only Functional MD, but Naturopaths as well. Functional MDs look to heal the body by working with the whole body system to heal… while Naturopaths work to keep the body’s systems healthy and working properly to avoid incidence of poor health. The two systems work well together.
The VA also needs to offer more complimentary medicine and reimbursement for whole food supplements.
I agree wholeheartedly with you. I’ve made it to 83 in spite of having cancer. The first diagnosis had me so scared, I did what they told me and suffered the consequences of chemo. When it recurred 5 1/2 years later, I had further surgery, but no chemo and even THEY don’t do more doses of radiation. I don’t do surveillance either because it left me a shaking, frightened lump of protoplasm. I’m 13 years out from the recurrence and using supplements and other alternative strategies. I’ve had the good fortune to have had an excellent doctor. When she retired, I was at a loss for a while, but now have found another good one. He actually takes Medicare!