While most alt-health practitioners offer enthusiastic support for organizations like Turn the Tide and the Portland Hour Exchange, the benefits they acquire from those services don't address real-life costs, such as rent, food, and student loans. Jones says that even her most well-established health practitioner affiliates donate a maximum of around 10 hours a month. "It's a complementary policy," she explains. "All of us have to operate on a cash system."
Nancy Frederick, a homeopath who has been practicing for over 20 years, is an enthusiastic supporter of Turn the Tide. Still, she agrees the concept has its limitations. "My patients, if they call and they can't pay, I just tell them that I'm a member of Turn the Tide and I ask that they pay it forward. I have to limit it; most people (do) at this point — because you can fill half your day with people that just aren't able to pay for your services. So we often times have to turn people down."
As local nontraditional bodyworkers find ways to reach out to people in need of health care, national and state heavyweights continue to dance around the alternative health-care industry. Two months ago, Consumers For Affordable Health Care reported that as part of the Affordable Care Act, Obama's health-care reform bill, "125,000 Mainers will be eligible to participate in middle-class tax cuts that will help pay for the cost of private health insurance in 2014."
To many, that will undoubtedly provide some relief. Frederick, who is insured through her husband's employer, warns of a bitter irony affecting insured people. "We haven't been to a doctor in over 20 years. There's all this money being paid out to this health care system that we don't have a use for."
The national debate on the provisions and responsibilities of health care is far from settled. Meanwhile, the city's growing legion of qualified bodyworkers aim to work out the kinks in the local discussion.
HIDDEN BENEFITS
The $1000 massage benefits offered to city employees has had profound effects on the alt-health industry and economy. By helping to establish a consistent client base to the city's developing alternative-health industry, city government has, however unwittingly, set an interesting precedent for a progressive model of local health-care support. The select but consistent client base of municipal workers has provided a foothold for many upstart local practitioners, while enabling other more established practices the flexibility to offer a sliding scale to people who can't otherwise afford care. For city employees at least, the generous insurance subsidy has removed a key stumbling block for consumers: paying full price for ventures into alternative care many are uncertain will improve their health.
The hourly service rate of professional bodywork can create a misleading perception that alt-health practitioners are raking it in. According to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median hourly wage (assuming everything) for Portland massage therapists is $15.54. (By contrast, the city's physical therapists, often fully eligible to accept insurance, make a median hourly wage of $31.86.)
Most alt-health professionals in Portland charge somewhere between $70 and $90 per hour. For those of us who'd be paying out-of-pocket, that's an considerable sum. Although many offer a variety of sliding-scale measures and contingencies, they insist that a number of other factors keep them from straying too far from that fee. While this cost may ultimately be prohibitive to people no matter what, the practitioners may have a point.
