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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T

SPONSOR Robinson

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

1/31/06

HB

SHORT TITLE Albuquerque Alternative Medicine

SB 426

ANALYST Lewis

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY06

FY07

10,000.0

Recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Department of Health (DOH)

Health Policy Commission (HPC)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

Senate Bill 426 appropriates $10,000,000 from the general fund to the Department of Health to

support provision of alternative medicine in Albuquerque.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation of $10,000,000 contained in this bill is a recurring expense to the general fund.

Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of fiscal year 2007 shall revert

to the general fund.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

Senate Bill 426 does not define “alternative medicine” and it gives no indication as to how the

appropriation would be allocated.

The Department of Health (DOH) assumes that alternative medicine includes oriental medicine,

naturopathic medicine, homeopathic medicine, acupuncture and other “alternatives” to allopathic

(“Western”) medicine. SB 426 would presumably expand the range of alternative therapies

Senate Bill 426 – Page

2

available to individuals in Albuquerque. This appropriation is not included in the DOH executive

budget.

The “Alternative Medicine HomePage” (

http://www.pitt.edu/~cbw/altm.html

) at the University

of Pittsburgh, a self-described “jumpstation for sources of information on unconventional, unor-

thodox, unproven, or alternative, complementary, innovative, integrative therapies,” cites several

definitions of alternative medicine, including:

1)

The Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) Section staff of the National Library of Medicine

classifies alternative medicine under the term complementary therapies, i.e. therapeutic prac-

tices which are not currently considered an integral part of conventional allopathic medical

practice. Therapies are termed as complementary when used in addition to conventional

treatments and as alternative when used instead of conventional treatment.

2)

Others define alternative medicine as medical interventions not taught at United States medi-

cal schools or not available at United States hospitals.

3)

In April 1995 the Panel on Definition and Description, CAM Research Methodology Confer-

ence, Office of Alternative Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland de-

fined complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) as a broad domain of healing re-

sources that encompasses all health systems, modalities, and practices and their accompany-

ing theories and beliefs, other than those intrinsic to the politically dominant health system of

a particular society or culture in a given historical period. CAM includes all such practices

and ideas self-defined by their users as preventing or treating illness or promoting health and

well being. Boundaries within CAM and between CAM domain and the domain of the domi-

nant system are not always sharp or fixed.

4)

Alternative therapies include, but are not limited to the following disciplines: folk medicine,

herbal medicine, diet fads, homeopathy, faith healing, new age healing, chiropractic, acu-

puncture, naturopathy, massage, and music therapy.

ML/nt