Positive Health Online

Abstract

SOMMER and colleagues, University of Basel, Health Economics and Social Policy Research Unit, Switzerland investigated the effects of including alternative medicine within the benefit package of health insurance in Switzerland .

Background

Methodology

The questions asked in this study included: 1) Are complementary medical services, paid for by a health insurer, used in addition to orthodox medical services, or instead of them; 2) If complementary medical services are included in the basic insurance cover, what are the effects upon costs?; 3) If Complementary medical services are included in the basic cover, what is the effect upon the policyholder's subjective state of health? The authors conducted a randomised experiment in which 7500 members of Switzerland's largest health insurer, Helvetia, were offered free supplementary insurance for alternative medicine for 3 years, having access to the full range of complementary treatments under their health insurance policy. The remaining 670,000 people formed the control group. The health insurers costs and benefits data were analysed to evaluate the effect upon costs. Additionally, a survey was conducted among random samples of people from the experimental and control groups using a Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36) to evaluate the effects of including complementary medicine upon subjective state of health.

Results

The analysis of the cost data demonstrated that the people used alternative in addition to orthodox medical services . Alternative medical treatments were used in combination with orthodox medical treatments; fewer than 1% of the experimental group used exclusively alternative medical services. Only a small percentage of experimental subjects (6.6%) took advantage of complementary medicine; hence no significant impact upon overall health costs could be inferred. However, multiple regression analysis showed that the use of complementary medicine had a greater effect upon treatment costs than sex, age or language region . There were no significant differences either at the beginning nor the end of the experiment between the treatment and control groups upon subjective state of health, nor did analysis reveal any effects upon subjects state of health because of the inclusion of complementary medicine within the basic insurance cover.

Conclusion

References

Sommer JH et al. A randomized experiment of the effects of including alternative medicine in the mandatory benefit package of health insurance funds in Switzerland. Complementary Therapies in Medicine. 7(2): 54-61. Jun 1999.