Health Insurance For Massage?

I’ve never been sold on the idea of health insurance coverage for massage. Recently, a colleague mentioned with excitement he’d been invited to participate in a health insurer’s network, and I was as surprised by his enthusiasm as he was by my lack of it. I could digress into a lengthy analysis of the economics of insurance (as many already have), but I’d rather ask a threshold question no one else seems to ask: why should health insurance should cover massage?Yes, massage is a valuable health care modality. Yes, it is wonderful (and sometimes essential) for rehabbing fully from accidents and injuries. And, yes, it costs more than some people can (or want) to pay. But…is it a cost we need to insure against?

I think, as a society, we’ve lost sight of what insurance is supposed to do. By original intent, insurance was supposed to protect us from the risk of unexpected, unpredictable events, and thus save us from financial devastation. In exchange for our premium payments, an insurance company assumes our risks for us. Homeowner’s insurance covers you if your roof caves in. Automobile insurance covers you if your car gets stolen. Health insurance covers you if you have a heart attack or a car accident and need emergency life-saving surgery.

Two factors I can identify have complicated health insurance, however. One, health care costs have gotten so high that even basic care is beyond many people’s means. And two, health insurers have realized that lower-cost, preventative care on the front end can eliminate
expensive life-saving interventions on the back end. For these reasons, health insurance now covers routine and predictable medical expenses, and we’ve become so accustomed to the coverage that we’ve lost track of where to draw the line.

I think massage therapy is a good place to start. First, at the risk of appearing a traitor to my colleagues, I will state that it is not a life-saving intervention. Valuable, yes, but essential to survival…no. Second, it isn’t always cheap, but it also isn’t cost prohibitive. In fact, the proliferation of massage franchises offering discounted rates to members has made massage more affordable than ever, and massage school student clinics are often free altogether. I propose there is no problem here for health insurance to solve.

I think most massage therapists, if they’re honest with themselves, already know this. What they’re looking for from health insurance when they get excited about the option isn’t the lower pay, the extra paperwork, or the captive clients—they’re looking for respect. Health insurance coverage, in their view, proves massage therapy’s legitimacy as a health-supporting modality, after decades of being dismissed as a front for prostitution. These are the same people who perform massages in scrubs. They don’t want anyone to get the wrong idea, so they’re playing defense with their clothing. My view may put me at odds with much of the massage industry, but I don’t see insurance coverage as a vehicle we need to climb aboard.

Health insurance, meanwhile, is evolving into a monster that covers everything and costs the earth. People complain about how much it costs in the same breath they complain it doesn’t cover enough; they seem to miss the relationship between the two. For my part, I’m not willing to feed my profession to the monster, and I don’t see a compelling reason to. Our schooling—compared to other health professions—is inexpensive. Licensing is relatively simple, professional liability insurance is nominal, and business start-up costs at the entry level are minor. As a result, we can set prices that most clients can afford and we can spend our evenings doing something other than insurance paperwork. So here’s one vote for keeping the free market model we’ve got—I think it’s working just fine.

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