Why are vitamins and supplements not covered like medicine?
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So this is different in different places im sure, but a lot of vitamins minerals and supplements are covered under the same prescription medicine benefits as drugs are here in Australia.
This includes – iron supplements, magnesium, b12, vitamin d, some specialised baby formulas, nutritional support supplements for people on restrictive medically necessary diets, and I’m sure some others im missing.
There are restrictions on who can get them, mainly requiring that your levels actually be low (a lot of folks supplement with normal levels and the government doesn’t want to pay for that because it doesn’t have clear medical benefit), and some are restricted to certain groups (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people) as they get an extra discount on medicines and for other folks the stuff is cheap enough that the price is already lower than the government subsidy price.
TLDR – in a lot of countries at least some are paid for, but the group subsidising it generally sets out rules to make sure they’re getting value for money (ie that its needed and useful).
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