Homeopathy under attack in France and Germany – the start of something else?

ER Editor: A disturbing trend, of attacking homeopathy and natural medicine in general, seems to be emerging. Below we publish one article from Deutsche Welle (MSM warning) and two from RFI (Radio France International, ditto) on the subject of the German and French governments phasing out reimbursements for homeopathy under their medical insurance systems. That, plus an article we recently ran on Google rigging its search engine in relation to natural medicine searches titled GOOGLE: “Organic is a Lie, Supplements are Dangerous, Chiropractic is Fake,” & Other Thoughts They Want You To Think.

The final article published below reveals that a group behind a French site called No Fakemed (English page) is lobbying hard against homeopathy in particular, but its page also suggests it is attacking alternative medicine in general, including acupuncture and mesotherapy. In particular it is calling for de-certification of alternative practitioners. One wonders if Big Pharma isn’t behind this.

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German health insurers urged to end homeopathy refunds

The head of the main doctors’ association and the SPD’s health specialist have called for an end to refunds for homeopathy treatments in Germany. Their calls follow a similar move in France.

DW

The head of the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KBV), which represents 150,000 doctors and psychotherapists in Germany, said on Thursday that health insurance companies should not fund homeopathic services.
Homeopathy globules (Fotolia/B. Wylezich)

“There is insufficient scientific evidence for the efficacy of homeopathic procedures,” Andreas Gassen told daily Rheinische Post. “If people want homeopathic remedies, they should have them — but not at the expense of the community.”

There are about 7,000 homeopathic doctors registered in Germany who practice a system based on the belief that the body can cure itself, using minute amounts of natural substances, like plants and minerals, to stimulate the healing process.

Gassen’s comments follow those of the Social Democrat (SPD) health issues specialist and lawmaker Karl Lauterbach, who has pressed for a law banning refunds for homeopathy.

“We have to talk about it in GroKo,” Lauterbach said earlier this month, suggesting a discussion in the government grand coalition. He said the benefits paid for by insurers should be medically and economically sensible. He has the support of the Federal Joint Committee which decides on what is covered by payments from the statutory health funds.

A doctor examines a patient's headIn Germany there are 150,000 doctors — around 7,000 specialize in homeopathy

France phases out payments by 2021

The move follows an announcement by the French health minister on Wednesday that reimbursements for homeopathic treatment would be reduced and then stopped completely by 2021.

Former doctor and current Health Minister Agnes Buzyn said she made the decision following a critical report on homeopathy published in June by the National Authority for Health (HAS) which concluded there was no benefit to the medicine and it had “not scientifically demonstrated sufficient effectiveness to justify a reimbursement.”

“I have decided to start the process for complete non-reimbursement,” Buzyn told Le Parisien newspaper. The current 30% of the cost of homeopathic treatments covered by the French social security will be phased down to 15% in 2020 and then to zero in 2021. Of the €20 billion euros ($22.4 billion) paid by the French state for medicines in 2018, just €126.8 million were for homeopathic treatments.

Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) decided to stop funding homeopathic care in 2017.

Original article

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France to halt payouts for homeopathy from 2021

mediaPhasing them out: French health minister Agnès Buzyn says homeopathic remedies will no longer qualify for reimbursement after 2021. REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer

France is to stop reimbursing patients for homeopathic treatment from 2021, the health minister has announced. This follows advice from the national health authority that alternative medicine has no proven medical benefit.

French Health Minister Agnès Buzyn said the refunds paid by French social security – currently 30 percent of the treatment – will be phased down to 15 percent in 2020 and then to zero in 2021.

“I have decided to start the process for complete non-reimbursement,” Buzyn told the Le Parisien daily newspaper, adding that she was following the advice of the French National Authority for Health (HAS).

She added that the transition period would allow both patients and pharmaceutical companies to adapt to the new system.

The HAS at the end of June published a damning scientific view, saying that homeopathy had “not demonstrated scientifically a sufficient effectiveness to justify a reimbursement”.

Buzyn acknowledged that the move could prove unpopular and emphasised it should not stop doctors prescribing homeopathic medicines or patients from buying them.

French company Boiron, the world leader in homeopathic products, denounced what it said was an “incomprehensible and incoherent decision”.

The company asked for an urgent meeting with President Emmanuel Macron and said it would “do everything to fight” the decision.

Original article

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France moves to stop reimbursing homeopathy

France’s health watchdog has recommended that homeopathic medicines should no longer be paid for by the country’s health system because there is insufficient evidence to show they work. But homeopathy is very popular here: users and homeopaths insist it offers a cheap, environmentally-friendly and above all holistic approach to healthcare.
mediaSupporters of homeopathy demonstrate in Lyon on 28 June, 2019 to maintain state reimbursement of homeopathy. ©JEAN-PHILIPPE KSIAZEK / AFP

Homeopathy was created in 1796 by German physician Samuel Hahnemann. He died here in France and left behind generations of adepts.

Many a French child has grown up taking little white sugar granules containing plant-based active substances, but which are so diluted there’s little or no discernible trace left.

Despite this, a survey by Odoxa in January 2019, showed that 72 percent of French people believed homeopathy had benefits.

Arnica is one of the most popular.

“We’ve all been treated by a bit of arnica when we fell and hurt ourselves as children,” says Caroline, a pharmacist in Paris. “Our mums gave it to us, so we’ve grown up with it. Homeopathy has no side effects or toxins so you can give it to adults, children or animals.”

More than half of the French use homeopathic remedies, most commonly in the form of granules.GettyImages/Erik Tham

Nathalie, a youthful-looking radio producer in her fifties often treats her eight year old with homeopathic remedies.

When her daughter’s foot got hit by a car wheel she gave her arnica 30CH straightaway “because it helped with the shock, both emotional and physical,” she explains, handing over €2.35 for another dose at her local pharmacy.

“The next day she was less stressed about what had happened and it helped relieve the pain.”

Insufficient scientific evidence

Close to 60 percent of people in France say they use homeopathic remedies, most commonly to relieve aches and pains, ward off or treat colds, reduce stress and insomnia.

They’re available over the counter at most pharmacies. And if prescribed by one of France’s 4,000 qualified homeopathic doctors, are reimbursed by the Assurance maladie (social security) to the tune of around 30 percent.

That could soon change if the government decides to follow the recommendations of France’s health watchdog (HAS).

After nine months investigating the effects of homeopathy on 24 medical conditions, including anxiety, foot warts and acute breathing infections, it concluded on 28 June that there was insufficient scientific evidence to justify continuing the reimbursement.

That position already had the backing of the Academy of Medicine (ANM) and the Academy of Pharmacy (ANP).

My Homeopathy, my choice

The HAS investigation came after 124 doctors published an open letter in Le Figaro in March 2018 condemning homeopathy as “dangerous and fantasist […] practiced by charlatans of all kinds”.

The SNMHF – French syndicate of homeopathic doctors – riposted with the campaign “Mon homéo Mon Choix (My Homeopathy, My Choice). Funded by Boiron, Weleda and Lehning, Europe’s leading manufacturers of homeopathy, the petition has since gathered more than one million signatures.

Not every one of France’s homeopathic doctors may be competent, but having gone through the compulsory eight years of medical school plus a complementary course in homeopathy, they refute the term “quacks”.

“I’m an average GP, I treat all my patients from baby to grandmother for any kind of disease,” says Dr. Hélène Renoux, president of the European committee for homeopathy, and who has been practising homeopathy at her surgery in Bourg-la-Reine for 25 years.

“When my patient is in front of me, I’ve got one more tool in my suitcase […] if I see homeopathy is not able to treat a disease, that it’s not the [most] appropriate treatment for this disease, of course I’m completely able to use other tools.”

She says she’s flooded with patient requests and can’t satisfy demand.

“There’s really a gap between the claim of some of the medical doctors against homeopathy and the global population that is more and more interested, saying ‘this is what we are waiting for, this is what we need’.”

Dr Héléne Renoux, head of the European committee of homeopathy, in her surgery at Bourg-la-Reine south of Paris©RFI/A.Hird

Faced with criticism over the lack of clinical data proving homeopathy has a physical effect, she says it’s a work in progress.

“It’s true that for the moment we have no definitive conclusion that we can say it works. But we cannot say it doesn’t work because we have some findings that are very promising. It’s likely that in the years to come we will find more and more things that can give a hint on what’s happening when we are giving homeopathic medicine.”

Placebo effect

Sceptics claim that homeopathy has no more than a placebo effect because the substances used are too diluted to have a physical impact. That said, French scientist Jacques Beneviste made a strong case that water molecules retained a memory of the antibodies that they had previously been in contact with.

In any case, the placebo effect is enough for some users.

“It may well be just a placebo effect but providing it works I’m happy with that,” Pauline told RFI. “If I can heal myself with three granules of sugar I’d rather do that than take antibiotics. It’s more natural, it doesn’t feel like I’m hurting my body whereas there are loads of medicines I don’t trust.”

But detractors say France’s social security system, already deep in debt, shouldn’t be financing “beliefs”.

Members of the No Fakemed collective are waging an vigorous online campaign against reimbursement.

“We’re not trying to change people’s beliefs, but beliefs should not be financed through public coffers,” says pediatriatrian Maxime Bacquet, a member of No Fakemed.

“Church and state have been separated for a long while, the separation of medicine and beliefs should be done once and for all in 2019,” he told RFI.

For Dr Jérémy Descoux, head of Fakemed, the collective acts as a “counterweight to pseudo-science in the media […] the propaganda aimed at discrediting scientific authorities” and which has recently found an echo in scepticism over vaccines.

Baquet claims that the French are so enthusiastic about homeopathy partly because they over-medicate in general.

“We want people to take less medicine, for them to realise that their slight symptoms aren’t always serious and don’t need treatment,” he explains.

“Most of the time things heal naturally, we prescribe too much medicine in France and yet an explanation is worth a lot more than a lengthy prescription. If we had more time to explain to patients, we wouldn’t have to reassure them by giving them long prescriptions.”

LISTEN TO THIS STORY IN THE SPOTLIGHT ON FRANCE PODCAST
Women’s football fans, homeopathy under attack, radicalisationSpotlight on France

The issue of spending time with the patient is one of the keys to understanding the controversy over homeopathy in France.

Whereas most GPs are conventionné (charging a set fee of 22 euros per consultation), many homeopathic doctors are non-conventionné (allowed to set their own fees). The latter are able to spend more time with their patients, offering a more tailor-made, holistic response.

Remedies are based on patients’ profile and personality, not their symptoms. So two patients each with sore-throats would not necessarily walk away with the same prescription.

Renoux says she’s always felt the majority of the medical profession were respectful towards homeopaths, and explains the recent outbreak of disdain by the steadily degenerating conditions many GPs are working in.

“General practice is not respected enough in our country,” she says, “and when you feel bad, you put the problem onto someone else.”

Homeopaths, she feels, have become the bêtes noires of the medical profession.

“I think these people would dream [of being able] to ask for more money for a consultation, to have more time for a consultation, to consider each patient as a single person and not as a global public health issue.

“We should become the standard,” Renoux continues. “Please learn what homeopaths are doing because at the very end we are saving lives, saving money and protecting the environment. We should be a model.”

€126 million could be saved each year

The government is due to make a decision in the coming days or weeks, but has already suggested it is inclined to follow HAS’s recommendations.

An end to reimbursement would save the social security department €126million per year. But compared to the 20 billion it spends on reimbursing conventional medicine, this seems like a drop in the ocean.

Pharmaceutical lab Boiron, one of the world’s leading homeopathic drug makers, depends on the French market for about 60 percent of its 605 million euros of revenue per year. It has warned that an end to reimbursement in France could threaten up to 1,300 jobs here.

Last Friday, about 600 Boiron employees, along with doctors and patients dressed in white demonstrated in Lyon, near to Boiron’s headquarters.

Several users of homeopathy told RFI they would carry on buying homeopathy whether it was still reimbursed or not. But Boiron warns prices could go through the roof because they would no longer be regulated and private health insurance would no longer have an obligation to continue reimbursing.

In Italy, for example, where homeopathy is not reimbursed, a tube can cost eight euros.

Future of teaching homeopathy at risk

What’s more, the impact could be more than financial.

“Non-reimbursement would have a psychological impact too,” says Fabienne Courtray, a pharmacist with Boiron. “It would discredit homeopathy.”

Homeopathy is currently taught in 15 medical schools in France. In September 2018, the Lille Faculty of Medicine suspended its diploma in homeopathy, pending clarification of HAS’ position.

There are fears other medical schools could follow suit, endangering the training of future homeopaths in France, and ultimately its future full stop.

“We are demanding a moratorium and parliamentary debate followed by a public debate,” said Valérie Lorentz-Poinsot, director general of Boiron, on behalf of three laboratories.

One option is for the government to reduce reimbursement from 30 to 15 percent, as suggested by the Minister for the economy. Prices would still be regulated, private health insurance would still reimburse its part, and France’s social security would still make savings: around 65 million euros a year.

A pragmatic solution in a country not always renowned for its pragmatism.


This story was first produced for Spotlight on France. Listen and subscribe to the podcast here.

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Original article

Published to The Liberty Beacon from EuropeReloaded.com

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