Acupuncture - Legal and Political Status - United States

United States

Acupuncturists in the United States are required to attend a four-year graduate level, accredited program to be licensed. Each state has its own licensure agencies and confers different titles ranging from the Acupuncture Physician in Florida to Licensed Acupuncturist in Oregon. The abbreviation "Dipl. Ac." stands for "Diplomate of Acupuncture" and signifies that the holder is board-certified by the NCCAOM. Twenty-three states require certification, according to that body.

A poll of American doctors in 2005 showed that 59% believe acupuncture was at least somewhat effective for treatment of pain. In 1996, the United States Food and Drug Administration changed the status of acupuncture needles from Class III to Class II medical devices, meaning that needles are regarded as safe and effective when used appropriately by licensed practitioners. As of 2004, nearly 50% of Americans who were enrolled in employer health insurance plans were covered for acupuncture treatments.

Read more about this topic:  Acupuncture, Legal and Political Status

Famous quotes related to united states:

    ... it is probable that in a fit of generosity the men of the United States would have enfranchised its women en masse; and the government now staggering under the ballots of ignorant, irresponsible men, must have gone down under the additional burden of the votes which would have been thrown upon it, by millions of ignorant, irresponsible women.
    Jane Grey Swisshelm (1815–1884)

    I have ever deemed it fundamental for the United States never to take active part in the quarrels of Europe. Their political interests are entirely distinct from ours. Their mutual jealousies, their balance of power, their complicated alliances, their forms and principles of government, are all foreign to us. They are nations of eternal war.
    Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)

    The United States Constitution has proved itself the most marvelously elastic compilation of rules of government ever written.
    Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)

    I feel most at home in the United States, not because it is intrinsically a more interesting country, but because no one really belongs there any more than I do. We are all there together in its wholly excellent vacuum.
    Wyndham Lewis (1882–1957)

    The United States is just now the oldest country in the world, there always is an oldest country and she is it, it is she who is the mother of the twentieth century civilization. She began to feel herself as it just after the Civil War. And so it is a country the right age to have been born in and the wrong age to live in.
    Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)