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Acupuncture Poll

By Editorial Staff

The Acupuncture Poll's question for April 2003 was:

"How effective are the national associations (i.e., the AAOM and the Acupuncture Alliance) in meeting the needs of the acupuncture and Oriental medicine profession in the United States?

Results are as follows:

These results are based upon 855 responses. As this is a voluntary, non-scientific survey, caution should be used in generalizing the results. Here is a sample of the comments made by those who took the survey and how they voted:

Somewhat effective: We want to see acupuncture services paid by Medicare. This should be our number one priority. We need to lobby Congress to add an acupuncture benefit to all federal employee health insurance plans as well ... All of this arguing about hours and turf is a waste of time.

Somewhat ineffective: While the AAOM and the Alliance have been effective in supporting individual states to get basic licensing laws passed, they have achieved little else.

Very effective: Although the national organizations got off to a rocky start due to the battles over philosophy and direction for the profession, they now appear to be working together and improving their responsiveness to the profession. The recent visioning process to establish a national vision for the profession will go a long way toward achieving the goal of a more effective profession.

For more information on the Acupuncture Poll, contact Acupuncture Today at .

Acupuncture Today editorial staff members research, investigate and write articles for the publication on an ongoing basis. To contact the Editorial Department or submit an article of your own for consideration, email mailto: .