A story I heard (so I cannot vouch for its accuracy) was that a doctor in a small town (maybe US Midwest) that most of the health issues he saw in his child patients could be solved with nutritious food (i.e. rickets). So he prescribed food.
It was a prescription, so it was covered. Someone came along and said “but you can’t do that, food isn’t medicine.”
His response, “Medicine is to cure ills. If oranges cure scurvy and milk cures rickets, doesn’t that make them medicine?”
And this was the impetus for the food stamp program.
So yeah, if a doctor prescribes something, you should get it. Insurance should cover it.
there’s currently (Dec2024) a hospital in boston filling prescriptions for utilities with their own solar farm!
Even if someone did medically need a speedboat it should be available to them.
My dad was a doctor, and he often complained about how insurance would cover weight loss surgery (which can get people thinner but not necessarily any healthier) but would not cover a bicycle (which for many people can be a fun, achievable and healthy way to get in better physical shape) even if he recommended it for a patient.
(in his retirement years he volunteered a lot with a nonprofit that modified bicycles and got volunteers to help with rides, for disabled people who wanted to overcome any obstacle to get into cycling. This is, as far as I know, still not covered by any insurance. Fuck insurance.)
