Why are vitamins and supplements not covered like medicine?

Question

Why are vitamins and supplements not covered like medicine?

In: 2

Answer 1

The stuff you buy online or at the grocery store don’t actually claim to have any specific medical benefit. “Healthy” or “good for heart/brain/liver health” or “2000% of recommended daily value” are not medical claims, and they are very carefully chosen to *not* be medical claims but to still sound good to the buyer.

If a vitamin/supplement ever claimed to actually have a specific medical effect, then it would need to be authorized by the FDA or similar organization, which means it needs to be run through clinical trials to see if it actually gives that specific benefit.