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In the early 1990s, Americans spent an estimated $27 billion on alternative medical treatments. However, most of those expenditures were paid out of pocket rather than by health insurers. This article reviews empirical studies of third-party coverage of complementary & alternative medicine (CAM) & the factors behind the reluctance of health insurers to provide benefits for those treatments. This reluctance is based on three principal factors: a lack of scientific evidence supporting CAM providers' claims of medical efficacy, the absence of credentialing standards for many CAM providers, & difficulties in fitting CAM treatments into typological schemes that determine levels of reimbursement by health insurers. Possibilities for overcoming these obstacles to the integration of CAM into the American system of health insurance are discussed. 29 References. [Copyright 2002 Sage Publications, Inc.]

Background: The aim of this study was to analyse global research and development (RD) strategies for traditional medicine (TM) and complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) across the world to learn from previous and on-going activities. Methods: 52 representatives within CAMbrella nominated 43 key international stakeholders (individuals and organisations) and 15 of these were prioritised. Information from policy documents including mission statements, RD strategies and RD activities were collected in combination with personal interviews. Data were analysed using the principles of content analysis. Results: Key stakeholders vary greatly in terms of capacity, mission and funding source (private/public). They ranged from only providing research funding to having a comprehensive RD and communication agenda. A common shift in RD strategy was noted; whereas 10 years ago research focused mainly on exploring efficacy and mechanisms, today the majority of stakeholders emphasise the importance of a broad spectrum of research, including methodologies exploring context, safety and comparative effectiveness. Conclusion: The scarce public investment in this field in Europe stands in stark contrast to the large investments found in Australia, Asia and North America. There is an emerging global trend supporting a broad research repertoire, including qualitative and comparative effectiveness research. This trend should be considered by the EU given the experience and the substantial research funding committed by the included stakeholders. To facilitate international collaborative efforts and minimise the risk of investment failure, we recommend the formation of a centralised EU CAM research centre fostering a broad CAM RD agenda with the responsibility for implementing the relevant findings of CAMbrella.

In this paper, the author compares phenomena of political populism and alternative medicine on the ground of – similar in structure and content – narrations (and identities created on their basis) of propagators and followers of these ideas/ social praxis. The main thesis of the paper is the assumption that the narrative and identity mechanisms of alternative medicine are analogous to those of political populism. The author tries to prove it in the context of their relation to their counterparts in the mainstream of power/knowledge, with the assumption that these are dialectical relations understood in a specific manner. The oppositions of populism–liberal democracy and alternative medicine–conventional medicine are real, but in the broader sense, they complement and need each other to preserve the cores of the system, which implicates ineffectiveness of those alternative discourses. This article presents examples of anti-elitism and conspiratorial thinking both in political populism and in alternative medicine. It turns out that populism and unconventional medicine are so closely connected that alternative medicine, in its attitudes, refers not only to medical statements, but also to political ones.

THE AUTHOR DESCRIBES AND EVALUATES THE ECONOMIC POLICIES OF BRITAIN'S CONSERVATIVE PARTY, ARGUING THAT "THATCHERISM" AND ITS DEFLATIONARY STRATEGIES ARE THE CAUSE OF MUCH OF THE COUNTRY'S INCREASING UNEMPLOYMENT. THE EFFECTS OF BRITAIN'S OIL REVENUES ARE DISCUSSED AND PRIME MINISTER THATCHER'S "MONETARIST" POLICIES ARE CRITICIZED. A LABOR PARTY ALTERNATIVE IS OFFERED.

The miraculous cure of the blind god Plutos ("Wealth') in Aristophanes' play illuminates some of the reasons why people have sought help in alternative medicine over the ages. Apart from limitations of conventional medicine these factors can be social, political, religious, psychological, and scientific. Alternative medicine may function in a complementary way to the conventional. Nevertheless, an overestimation of its therapeutic potentials by the public can lead to the domination of irrationalism, all in the name of liberation from the shackles of a mechanistic rationalism.