In Switzerland, health insurance, which is backed by the state, will now cover five types of complementary medicine until 2017 after the government issued a new ruling. There will however be an independent investigation of whether or not they work.
In 2009 there was a referendum in the country and 67 per cent of the electorate balloted in favour for complementary medicine to be covered by health insurance . The five therapies to be offered are homeopathy, herbal and traditional Chinese treatments, anthroposophic medicine, which among other techniques uses mistletoe to treat cancer and neural therapy, which is based on injecting local anaesthetics near nerve centres.
However in December, according to a scientific panel, acting on behalf of the Swiss government, the methods used did not meet objective measures of efficiency. This is considered to be unlawful, as health insurance is required by law to pay only for such treatments. Ignazio Cassis, national vice-chairman of the Swiss Medical Association said the only legal solution was to pay for the five methods temporarily, but they all must prove their “efficacy, cost-effectiveness and suitability” by 2017.
In 2009 there was a referendum in the country and 67 per cent of the electorate balloted in favour for complementary medicine to be covered by health insurance . The five therapies to be offered are homeopathy, herbal and traditional Chinese treatments, anthroposophic medicine, which among other techniques uses mistletoe to treat cancer and neural therapy, which is based on injecting local anaesthetics near nerve centres.
However in December, according to a scientific panel, acting on behalf of the Swiss government, the methods used did not meet objective measures of efficiency. This is considered to be unlawful, as health insurance is required by law to pay only for such treatments. Ignazio Cassis, national vice-chairman of the Swiss Medical Association said the only legal solution was to pay for the five methods temporarily, but they all must prove their “efficacy, cost-effectiveness and suitability” by 2017.
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