[jajko]

> I'm not sure how that works in other countries that have socialized medical care today

Acupuncture is paid by medical insurance in Switzerland for example, just another type of medical procedure in their books. Don't know rationale behind it, wikipedia says no clear evidence for it, but I know several people including doctors who report measurable positive differences on themselves or their patients, its just not an instant cure-it-all like some want it to be.

[_heimdall]

Thanks for filling in a few blanks for me! While living in the Netherlands I had a Swiss neighbor. I always appreciated how he was expected to vote on even fairly minor changes proposed by the Swiss government. Guess I'll add this to the long list of things I appreciate about the Swiss government and culture!

Its always interesting to me when western modern medicine tries to scientifically validate alternative treatments that have been around for much longer. It's such a difficult thing to do, the two approaches are based on such drastically different approaches to health and the body that it really can be like trying to translate a book to English with a Latin dictionary.

[TheCoelacanth]

Acupuncture is pretty cheap compared to most medical procedures, so even if it's just an unusually effective placebo, it's still probably worth the cost.