The CDC's latest report highlights a decline in smoking among high school students contrasted with rising healthcare costs that force many adults to delay treatment. Initiatives like the Healing Clinic Collective and Third Root Community Health Center aim to provide affordable holistic care, emphasizing the importance of preventative medicine for low-income communities.
In This Article
- What challenges are low-income Americans facing in healthcare?
- How can holistic health services be made more affordable?
- What methods are being used to provide accessible holistic care?
- How are community initiatives applying these holistic practices?
- What are the potential risks of relying on holistic treatments?
From Oakland to Brooklyn, practitioners of holistic health care are working to make their services affordable for all.Fewer high school students smoked cigarettes in 2013 than in previous years, while more adults are delaying health care because they can't afford it. These are among the insights of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's latest annual report, released in May.
The report suggests that young people are becoming less likely to damage their health through bad habits. High school students are smoking fewer cigarettes, drinking less alcohol, and only "barely" using cocaine. Marijuana use has gone up a bit, but most parents would likely agree they would rather their teen experiment with pot than cocaine. So, that's the good news.
High prices and difficulty in getting insurance companies to cover holistic services make alternatives unattainable for many low-income Americans.
Delaying Healthcare Due To Cost
The bad news is that the high cost of healthcare is causing serious problems. According to the CDC, 13 percent of adults report forgoing or delaying health care because they can't afford it. And, among uninsured Americans, that number jumps up to 33 percent.
Another theme in the report is the extraordinary dependence of the U.S. health care system on prescription medications. More Americans were prescribed drugs in 2013 for their ailments than in any previous year. Fifty percent of Americans reported taking at least one prescription drug in the previous month, the CDC found, and 10 percent reported taking five pills or more.
Yet prescription drugs aren't the only way to treat illness. Lifestyle changes or natural remedies like yoga and massage therapy can be highly effective when treating conditions such as high blood pressure, depression, or aching joints. Such treatments could potentially be less expensive as well due to their focus on preventative medicine, which can lead to fewer ailments, doctors' visits, and medication in the future.
But high prices and difficulty in getting insurance companies to cover holistic services make these alternatives unattainable for many low-income Americans.
Angela Angel is working to change that. She's co-founder of the Healing Clinic Collective, a free event for women in Oakland, Calif. Attendees receive a day of free holistic health care—everything from acupuncture to massage therapy to nutritional counseling—as well as discounted rates for appointments in the future.
"A lot of the women that were treated [in the past clinic events] are now real clients," Angel said of the clinic's lasting impact, with many of them receiving discounted rates.
Diversifying Their Clientèle Base
The clinic benefits practitioners of holistic medicine too. "They want to diversify their clientèle base," Angel said. "So we helped connect them to the community because sometimes when you're working as an acupuncturist … you're not usually reaching out to populations in East Oakland." (In that area, 51 percent of households are low-income and 35 percent of residents reported not having seen a doctor within the previous year, according to a study released by Building Healthy Communities.)
Almost 400 women attended last year's clinic, which prompted Angel's team to plan more events. They have another women's clinic planned for later this summer, a men's clinic planned for the fall, and a children's clinic they hope to host at the end of the year. If you're interested in supporting their efforts click here.
Angel's collective isn't the only project aiming to make holistic medicine available to low-income Americans. In Brooklyn, N.Y., the Third Root Community Health Center offers health care services including acupuncturists, herbalists, and reiki practitioners at a sliding-scale rate. Third Root reaches out to low-income people in New York City, with a focus on community organizers and activists who are often overworked and lacking the resources for that type of care.
In Seattle, Wash. the Samarya Center uses the revenue earned by its yoga studio to bring physical therapy to different communities. The center provides free yoga to critically ill patients at Seattle's Bailey-Boushay House; for veterans and their families at the city's VA hospital; and for patients with chronic pain at the Pike Place Medical Clinic, which serves many homeless and low-income Seattle residents.
This article originally appeared on YES! Magazine
About The Author
Liz Pleasant is a graduate of the University of Washington's program in Anthropology, and an online editorial intern at YES! Magazine Follow her on Twitter @lizpleasant.
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Further Reading
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How Healing Works: Get Well and Stay Well Using Your Hidden Power to Heal
This book explains how healing is influenced not only by treatments, but by environment, relationships, expectations, and daily habits. It connects directly to the article’s critique of medication-first care by showing how whole-person approaches can reduce chronic burden and improve outcomes. It also supports the case for accessible, preventive options that do not depend on expensive prescriptions.
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0399579249/innerselfcom
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The Web That Has No Weaver: Understanding Chinese Medicine
Because the article highlights acupuncture and other holistic modalities as effective yet often unaffordable, this book offers a strong foundation for understanding how traditional Chinese medicine approaches health and prevention. It helps readers see these practices as coherent systems rather than isolated techniques. That context matters when communities try to expand access and insurers demand clearer models of care.
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0809228408/innerselfcom
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The Community Cure: Transforming Health Outcomes Together
This book focuses on building health capacity at the community level rather than relying solely on clinic-by-clinic solutions. It fits the article’s theme of sliding-scale and free-care models by emphasizing collaboration, trust, and local networks that make care reachable for people priced out of the system. It is a practical companion for readers interested in scaling access-oriented, integrative services without losing quality.
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B083B6VDYP/innerselfcom
Article Recap
Holistic health care can offer affordable alternatives to traditional medicine, but access remains a challenge for many. Supporting community initiatives can enhance availability and affordability of these services.
#InnerSelfcom #HolisticHealth #AffordableCare #PreventativeMedicine #CommunityHealth #WellnessForAll #HealthEquity #IntegrativeMedicine
