Medical Pluralism Boosts Health Coverage

Medical pluralism largely encompasses diverse medical practices in everyday life of contemporary societies. It includes availability of different medical approaches, treatments and health institutions which combine both biomedicine and traditional medicine or alternative medicines. The notions of medical systems are shaped by diverse medical ideologies and socio-cultural hierarchies of medical practices. The socio-political horizon of the medical practices clearly demonstrates the pluralist nature of medicine in the 21st century. In the era of globalisation, colonial and global processes on local medicine have profound impacts on wider medical concepts and therapies in people’s everyday lives. Therefore, the debates around significance of medical pluralism are largely based on colonial and post-colonial contexts.