Thoughts On Financial Access

As we are surviving late-stage white supremacist patriarchal colonial capitalism (concept originally from bell hooks via Carmen Spagnola), part of my responsibility as a Naturopathic Doctor is to provide community care as a workaround for systems that do not inherently support our well-being.

As a white-bodied, straight, cis-gendered, woman with access to a network of generational wealth, I am more proximal to institutional power, have benefitted from these systems and will continue to as long as they exist. These structures and systems strategically leave out many people who are not proximal to these institutions of power.

As long as these structures are present, I will to work to create an environment for structural care — which happens at the policy level for things like universal basic income, racial equity and justice, increased social funding at the federal level and a comprehensive universal health care system.

Working towards structural care is a long game and I recognize that in the meantime, not every body can access the medicine I carry due to the barriers created by intersecting systems of oppression, despite the basic human right to access safe, affirming, compassionate and equitable healthcare.

For me, the barrier I can most directly control in my private practice is financial inaccessibility. I’ve often wondered how best to increase financial access to health and wellness spaces while honouring the value of my work. While this is a work-in-progress, for now I have adopted the Three-Tiered Approach from OtherWise Holistic Arts, as adopted from Alexis J. Cunningfolk’s article on The Sliding Scale: A Tool of Economic Justice.

a Three-Tiered Approach

1. 0% discount

2. 10% discount

3. 15% discount

From OtherWise Holistic Arts:

“The highest tier represents closest to the fair compensation for my time in clinic, skill, training, business overhead, and time spent on administration outside of clinical time. Further to that, I offer a 10% and 20% discount on my rates because I wish to ensure I am reaching more than just those most advantaged under the current social and economic paradigm.

I will not gate-keep access to sliding scale rates, and will take each request in good faith. Sliding scale must be requested directly from me in advance of our session so I can accurately issue your billing post-treatment. You are welcome to pay different amounts each time you come for a treatment, but please make sure you are requesting a rate change in advance of billing.

I ask people who are using insurance to not access the sliding scale rates no matter how much coverage you are allocated per session, since extended health benefit coverage is a significant relative to financial privilege. You may return to accessing sliding scale rates when you no longer have coverage.” ~ OtherWise Holistic Arts