FPD in Acupuncture: The Upside

There’s got to be a balance to the FPD issue. There’s been so much written against it, we’re due for some balance. Don’t you agree?

I thought so.

So here’s the upside. The silver lining…um…

I got it!

With the passage of the FPD, lots of potential acupuncture students will have a last barrier to the pursuit of acupuncture as a profession, thus saving them lots of qi, money, and time. Not everyone who wants to help people aspires to be a doctor. Some people who decided “well, ok, i can do four years,” will now consider other options. OK, so what they would really like is to learn where to stick needles in people to help them feel better. It’s pretty intriguing for sure. For thousands of years, people have stuck needles in people and helped them resolve or improve all kinds of conditions. There are those barefoot doctors who go into the country with a book of 100 points and a pack of needles. But not here, not when there’s so much money to make off acupuncture students.

Personal disclosure: it took me over four years to complete a year-round, four year program. I borrowed more than doucble the $60,000 in tuition and fees. WIth $140,000 in debt, my payments are meant to be $1200/month.

If the minimum for entry into the profession added another 18 months to my training, the decision would have been taken out of my hands, and I’d still be doing nonprofit work, or massage therapy, or yoga teaching, or reflexology. Whatever.

People don’t need doctors in every case. If ‘Mary’ has migraines, and her friend with migraines says she inhaled salt and it took the migraines away, Mary will have a tube up her nose the first chance she gets.

People just want to feel better.

But, enough of that!

Everyone: vote yes for the FPD! So a few private schools will make some extra dough. So insurance companies will surely control even more facets of healthcare. So the profession will implode. So people will lose access to affordable, effective acupuncture. At least we’ll save some people from the racket that should never have been a racket.

Author: obnicole

Beach Community Acupuncture (BCA) is located in San Diego's historic Point Loma. We opened in 2009, and provide more than 10,000 affordable treatments a year. Treatments at BCA are $25 for everyone, every day.