Folk medicine, traditional medicine, alternative medicine, complementary medicine, wellness - it is all the same thing rebranded to be sold anew but one thing remains consistent; none of it is actual medicine.

Acupuncture is a placebo, massages are not evidence-based treatments, your Blue Apron "organic" food subscription is not preventing any illness, and so the Biden administration has rightly decreed that you can't use a Health Savings Account - untaxed funds meant to be used for medical care - and buy alternatives to medicine. Not even if you you get a doctor to give you a note saying it is real. The irony is that because his constituents overwhelmingly distrust science, his administration launched an unscientific  “Food is Medicine” initiative last year.


Because this nonsense is in demand by their political demographic, Washington Post will be sure to cover the ruling with a 'women impacted most' slant.

The IRS hasn't gotten that memo. They say pretax funds aren’t for ‘health and wellness’ and that will have chiropractors and companies that will give you a 'medical letter of necessity' over the internet (Truemed et al.) in an uproar, because their lobbyists desperately want government legitimacy. With that, they don't need the scientific kind. So they have their PR flaks out arguing that by not pretending their services are medical, they are favoring drugs over 'prevention' and it's all a Vast Right Wing Corporate Conspiracy.

Except nothing they sell a 'letter of necessity' is preventing anything except larger bank accounts for their customers.

To alternative grifters, it's only about money, not public health.