Biden administration lets Medicaid pay for Native American “traditional medicines”

November 5, 2024 • 10:00 am

Just yesterday I wrote about the drive in New Zealand to integrate indigenous medicine (Rongoā Māori, or RM) with modern (often called “Western”) medicine.  The problem is that RM not only uses  spiritual treatments (prayer, singing, dunking the sufferer in water) but also herbal remedies, and neither of these have been tested for efficacy using randomized, controlled, double-blind testing. This is the gold standard used in modern medicine to test the efficacy of drugs and (sometimes) surgery. Without such tests, we simply can’t say that a medical intervention actually works.

But the drive to sacralize indigenous “ways of knowing” is strong, and has spread from New Zealand across the Pacific, where it is growing in both Canada and the United States.  Although it’s one thing—and still a bad thing—to prevent scientists from examining bones and artifacts found on land claimed to be “owned” by indigenous people, it’s a different thing entirely to start treating people with indigenous medicine. Although everyone can decide whether or not they want to be treated with scientifically tried-and-true procedures versus quackery like homeopathy, or even seek religious “cures,” children can’t make such decisions. They are subject to the whims and faiths of their parents, and in Faith Versus Fact I document some horrible deaths of children  propagandized into religious healing by their parents.  (Jehovah’s Witnesses, for instance, are forbidden to receive blood transfusions because of a wonky interpretation of the Bible.) At least when you take your kids for their vaccinations, you can be almost certain that they’ll acquire immunity to infection.

As I said, this kind of harmful sacralization of medical “ways of knowing” is on our doorstep, and below is an op-ed from the WSJ (by the editorial board) reporting that the Biden Administration has approved funding for “traditional health care practices of Indigenous people.”  And it doesn’t seem to matter exactly what those healthcare practices are! It can be herbs, prayer, touch, chanting, and so on. The government will pay for it!

Click below to read the short piece, which I’ve reproduced almost in its entirety, or find it archived here.

The “housing” bit is tangential, reporting that “the Administration is letting states use federal Medicaid dollars to pay for low-income housing, mini-refrigerators and food. A Biden executive order last month gave states a green light to use Medicaid to pay for ‘gun violence prevention’ counseling.”  I don’t have such strong feelings about that, though it does seem a tad outisde the ambit of what Medicaid is for.

But main part of the article, given below, is about government funding for what seems like quackery.  And if you want to argue that this op-ed is “fake news” because it comes from the op-ed section of the paper (yes, that section leans right), you can find the same information in an NPR article from October 19 of this year.

A long excerpt (bolding is mine):

The Biden Administration is trying to woo Native Americans whose votes could be pivotal in Western states. One pre-election gambit is to let Medicaid pay for Native American “traditional medicine.”

The Health and Human Services Department last month approved requests by Arizona, California, New Mexico and Oregon to use federal Medicaid funds to cover “traditional health care practices” of indigenous people. “We are extending access to culturally appropriate, quality health care in Tribal communities,” said HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra.

HHS says the Medicaid approvals are “the latest action demonstrating the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to support and invest in Indigenous communities across the country.” In short, this looks like another income redistribution scheme.

HHS doesn’t plan to restrict the types of traditional medicine that Medicaid will cover, nor the types of “healers.” Each tribal “facility can tailor provider qualifications for their traditional health care practitioners,” HHS says.

An American Medical Association brief on the state Medicaid proposals says “traditional healers are often identified in their Tribal community by their innate gift of healing” and “typically work informally.” Their “healing services” could include sweat lodges, prayers, purification rituals, songs, dance, herbal remedies and shamanism.

One healer who advocated for Medicaid coverage told the Salt Lake Tribune in February that he sometimes prescribes a “special ceremony against the negative energy of diabetes.” Herbs, he said, are also a favorite remedy for chronic illnesses including cancer plus a “special expression of prayer to the deities that made those herbs.”

Herbal remedies may have their uses, but Medicaid is supposed to cover evidence-based treatments. HHS says “demonstration projects” can determine if traditional medicine improves health outcomes. But lack of access to modern medical care—not lack of traditional remedies—is why Native Americans suffer more disease and worse health outcomes.

The last paragraph is correct in both assertions: Medicaid isn’t supposed to pay for quackery (seriously: “sweat lodges, songs, dance and shamanism”?) and Native Americans do lack sufficient access to modern health care.  The first bit is documented here:

Alternative treatments that haven’t been proven in scientific studies usually aren’t covered by Medicaid. Some procedures, such as chiropractic treatments and acupuncture, are sometimes covered. These treatments are more likely to be covered if they are recommended or prescribed by a doctor. Other alternative treatments that are occasionally covered include massage, pain treatments, and nutrition therapy. Some treatments, such as herbal and homeopathic therapies, are usually not approved for Medicaid payment.

Well, I’m not so sure that many chiropractic therapies, or any form of acupuncture, has been “proven in scientific studies”. But your tax dollars are paying for it! Now get ready for your tax dollars to pay for sweat lodges, songs, dances, and ceremonies. And you don’t even have to live in Arizona, California, New Mexico and Oregon to be dunned for quackery. The fund for Medicaid comes from all of us.

 

h/t: Frau Katze

20 thoughts on “Biden administration lets Medicaid pay for Native American “traditional medicines””

  1. When the time comes for palliation, I hope to find a physician who will write an order for my portable smudging pot, filled with Peterson’s (ex-Dunhill) Nightcap.

    2. Sorry, Jon, I have to dissent.
      Citing the few well publicized instances of modern medicine going wrong is no defense of nonsense “ancient science” that does utterly nothing beyond placebo.
      respectfully,
      D.A.
      NYC

  3. I once read all through a big 17th century Ba’al Shem-book, a collection of traditional Ashenazi remedies. Lots of herbal medicines, magical brews and practices, and amulet writing instructions. Strangely, I don’t hear Ashkenazi Jews in Israel or anywhere else complaining they want to receive Ba’al Shem magic brews. (Regarding amulets, they may well be still in use in some circles, although certainly not paid for by kupat cholim.)

  4. Anecdotal, but I saw this story circulating on social media the other day and was surprised by the level of support the proposal had in the comments. People were gushing over how “Wonderful” this news is and that “It’s about time.”

    I just shook my head.

  5. There is an argument to be made that doctors need need to meet people where they are. Native Americans have a deep distrust of hospitals and “white” medicine, stemming from nonconsensual ovariectomies, etc. and in living memory. If getting a population to trust healthcare means adding a sauna to the rez hospital on the national dime, then not only do I fail to see a problem, I see it as an obligation. Obviously an MD would have their own obligation to supplement a traditional treatment regimen with scientifically proven practices. But regardless, these are American citizens and this is a step towards recreating a trust that was decimated through years and years of bad policy.

    1. I think I said that when I made my Māori post the other day–having someone there of your own ethnicity might provide consolation. However, what is being proposed in today’s post is simply funding indigenous medicine, and not necessarily in league with modern medicine. As for it being an “obligation” to provide non-efficacious treatments to people and having us pay for them, I don’t necessarily agree. Do you want sweat lodges in hospitals, and patients dosed with herbal medicines (which could be harmful, or interfere with other drugs). It seems to me to be not only false advertising rather than an “obligation”, but also a violation of the First Amendment to use religious healing. The way to solve this is through education, not putting sweat lodges in hospitals. If you think that Native Americans are resistant to such education and must be catered to, then you must think that all the people who took ivermectin during Covid times must also have been catered to. Many groups have their own false ideas about medicine. Do you want chiropractors wrenching the necks of patients in hospitals, and homeopathy used–all on Americans’ dimes?

    2. What? By having an official approval of quackery this will restore trust in authorities.

      Since it probably won’t work at best or be entirely detrimental it will confirm the narrative that they are out to eliminate the indigenous.

      Education is the key, not pandering to superstition.

    3. I don’t agree that “sweat lodges, prayers, purification rituals, songs, dance, herbal remedies and shamanism” are about restoring trust (and at the same time I favour restoring that trust).

      The shaman is just the indigenous version of the guy with the cushy job to watch for the messiah at the gates of the shtetl who says “It may not pay well… but at least it’s steady work.”

      Indigenous people are not childish simpletons, and those who are not in the shamanistic cult know that this is a grift on the part of the shamans (shamen? shamanae?). They can spot a con man as easily as the rest of us. I think to argue otherwise is selling indigenous people short.

      1. And it’s not their money being spent on the grift. So even when they know it’s a con, they don’t mind, they don’t begrudge the shaman stealing settler money. Especially if he splashes it around.

    4. Paying for treatments that don’t work can’t possibly help anyone. It’s just that simple (or so it seems to me).

    5. > “Native Americans have a deep distrust of hospitals and “white” medicine, stemming from nonconsensual ovariectomies, etc. and in living memory. If getting a population to trust healthcare means adding a sauna to the rez hospital on the national dime, then not only do I fail to see a problem, I see it as an obligation.

      This reasoning does not make sense.

      If the source of the distrust is the documented abuse and mistreatment of American Indians (and other minorities) by hospitals and medical professionals, then it’s hard to see how bringing practitioners of indigenous medicine into the medical institution would increase trust in practitioners of “white” medicine. What does the former have to with the latter?

      Rather, the obvious way to increase trust in practitioners of “white” medicine is to radically reform the entire medical institution to ensure that the abuses that minorities fear can never happen again…

      Except, wait a minute: to a large extent, *these reforms have already been made.* E.g., countless laws, ethical rules, and regulations have been passed that, cumulatively, make the repeat of such crimes as the Tuskegee experiment and involuntary sterilization almost inconceivable. The most important reform may be in the way medical personnel are taught – specifically, the current generation is heavily socialized to abhor the medical mistreatment of minorities committed by earlier generations.

      It follows that the way to increase trust is to assure minorities that, thanks to these reforms, they have absolutely no reason to fear falling victim to the same medical crimes as earlier generations.

      Further, if we really care about American Indian health, the last thing we should do is to take money from curative treatments and spend it on quackery instead. The overall effect will be the same as the effect of medical abuse – to harm minority health.

  6. If people were concerned about the hurtful way Indigenous Folk Medicine was dismissed and ignored by modern medical science, wait till they see the tidal wave of scorn and fury it receives when it’s forceably shoehorned into medical treatment using taxpayer money. When John Q Public is footing the bill, even reasonable projects like fixing crumbling infrastructure gets criticized. This sort of nonsense is going to get blasted.

    Let the colonialist oppression begin.

    2. We’re on the way to having the goverment pay for any trans-conversion practices, so what the heck… where’s the support for Astrology Readings? Surely there are other ways of… “knowing” that still need to be… known.

  7. OOh FFS!
    What kind of doctor prescribes acupuncture? Somebody who shouldn’t AT ALL be a doctor.
    Happy though that I’ll be able to throw out my insulin and go straight for the healing ceremony. Excellent.

    Well written, by the way, PCC(E). I bet it’ll get re-tweeted a lot.
    Don’t let this indigenous science/M. Maori etc. thing go, professor, it is as outrageous and more dangerous than creationism.

    D.A.
    NYC

    1. I think that acupuncture and other quack treatments are commonly made available in clinics and hospitals if the patient asks for them. Someone can correct me. The reasoning is that these are presented alongside science-based medicines, where the s.b.m. does the real work, while the woo makes the patient agreeable to treatment and to follow-up treatments. But of course that probably adds to the cost.

      I had a friend with a dog with back problems. She really got excited about how the vet made a series of acupuncture treatments available — for . her . dog, alongside the actual treatment which consisted of anti-inflammatories. She is convinced the acupuncture worked.

  8. Just as doctors take the Hippocratic Oath “to do no harm” to patients, so should the practitioners of traditional medicine take the Shamanic Oath “to do no good.”
    😂

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