What Is Traditional Chinese Medicine, and Will Insurance Cover It?

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is an alternative medical practice that comes from ancient wisdom in China. Whether you’re a firm believer in TCM’s power or are curious to learn more, you should know that most health insurance companies in China provide some level of TCM benefits. 

This Pacific Prime article provides information on what TCM is for people new to the practice and discusses health insurance coverage for TCM.

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) in China

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) origins date back some 2,500 years. This was a time when ancient herbalists and doctors would advise on and perform techniques for patients to increase acute and chronic health problems, as well as promote overall health through preventive care.

TCM has some central concepts that make up the bedrock of its foundation. Perhaps chief among these is the idea of the body’s vital energy or life force, which is generally referred to as qi or chi. 

Qi passes through various conduits throughout the body and its balance or imbalance is largely responsible for whether the body is functioning properly or not. For this reason, much of TCM revolves around the flow, harnessing, release, buildup, imbalance, creation, or lack of qi.

There are five primary functions that qi is said to perform within the body:

• Actuation of normal bodily function
• Warming of the body
• Defense against outside illness
• Containment of bodily fluids
• Transformation of food and drink into qi, blood, and other bodily fluids

Beyond qi, TCM is also heavily focused on aspects of the body such as blood and other bodily fluids, organs, body meridians, and pressure points. As it has evolved, TCM has acknowledged the tenets of Western medicine and incorporated some of them into itself in both theory and practice. 

While Western medicine has not yet found evidence of the existence of qi in the human body, we are still beginning to see more legitimization of some aspects of TCM in Western medicine, whereas TCM was previously only seriously considered by holistic healers in prior decades.

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) Today

How could something so ancient as Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) continue to be present in mainstream culture today, even when modern science has written off large swathes of it? Let’s look at how TCM is being used today to see if we can find out.

• Acupuncture – Acupuncture involves the inserting of needles into specific points on the body in order to keep a patient’s qi flowing freely. While safe when performed by trained professionals, it should be noted that improper acupuncture techniques can result in nerve damage, infection, or worse.
• Qi gong – Qi gong is a practice that combines breathing, meditation, and movement in order to better control qi. This is often utilized by martial artists trying to achieve greater levels of spirituality and physical prowess, but is also said to have healing properties for practitioners and patients alike.
• Cupping – Cupping involves a TCM practitioner who creates a vacuum in a glass cup, which then creates a suction on spots on a patient’s body – usually on their back. This causes bruising resulting in large red circles on the patient. Cupping is said to treat pain.
• Bone setting – If you have bone issues of any kind, bone setting (also known as die-da) is the type of TCM that you’re looking for. Bone setters can also help with general injuries to soft tissue as well.
• Gua Sha – Gua Sha is similar to cupping, in that the surface skin of the patient is treated to cause bruising. However, instead of a cup and vacuum being used, a practitioner will simply cause abrasions to the skin with a stone or bone to get the desired result.
• Moxibustion – Moxibustion involves burning the herb mugwort on certain points of the body in order to stimulate circulation within it. The practice can produce blisters and scars, but this is oftentimes intended.
• Herbal medicine – Chinese herbology constitutes a majority of Traditional Chinese Medicine treatment. When seeking out herbal medicine, go to a certified herbalist. Be sure of the reputation of your herbalist as there have been issues with tainted medicines in past years.

Get a Health Insurance Plan to Cover Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)

Regardless of your thoughts as to the effectiveness of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), you can understand more about an important part of Chinese culture if you give it a shot. You may even find that the purported health benefits of TCM are true for you and your body.

Most health insurersin China provide TCM benefits, unlike insurers in many other countries. Despite insurers outside of China potentially seeing TCM as an exotic practice with dubious health benefits, China regards it so highly that insurers could not exclude it without losing a lot of business.

If TCM seems like something that you are interested in, you may want to think about securing a health insurance policy with benefits for it.Since many health insurers in China include TCM coverage in their plans, the issues lies in knowing which one is best for you needs

This is where working with an experienced insurance intermediary like Pacific Prime can be invaluable. Our advisers can gather your details, analyze any existing insurance plans you have, prepare a number of fitting plan options, and present you with a free plan comparison and price quotation.

Contact Pacific Prime today to find out how you can start getting your TCM treatments covered!

Disclaimer: Pacific Prime solely represents, operates, and manages locally regulated insurance products and services in the territory of PR China. Any references to Pacific Prime Global Company or Group, the international services, insurance products, or otherwise stated written or verbally, is for introduction purposes about our overseas network only as each entity is fully independent.