In February 2020, ARONAH took the opportunity to submit further evidence to the Federal Department of Health for the Natural Therapies Review.
In March 2019 naturopathy was removed from Private Health Insurance Rebates. This was based on an apparent lack of evidence for a large list of therapies, of which naturopathy and Western herbal medicine were a part. After pressure from ARONAH, as well as professional associations, industry, education, and practitioners, in April 2019 the Federal government announced they were going to review this decision.
The terms of reference were changed so that evidence for the ‘tools of the trade’ were included in the review, rather than only whole practice Australian research. This has significantly broadened the net for capturing the broad range of research that all naturopaths and Western herbalists know exists.
Here is ARONAHs submission