My editorial on health reform, first published in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, is online at the Adjust the Vote website of the International Chiropractors Association. It was distributed to all members of the House and Senate, and all health policy makers in the Obama Administration, as part of the push for including chiropractic in health care reform.
Here’s the link followed by the full chiropractic section:
As a profession that over the past generation has made great strides into the American health care mainstream – with widespread utilization and patient satisfaction; a strong research base; inclusion in most private insurance plans, worker’s compensation insurance, Medicare, military and veterans health care; and full recognition in Olympic and sports medicine – chiropractic now has the hallmarks of an essential health service.
Whether it is specifically recognized as essential in the core benefits package of the emerging health reform plan may prove a bellwether (along with lifestyle-based prevention) as to the extent to which genuine, paradigm-shifting change is embodied in the Obama program. Chiropractors (DCs) and their 22 million patients in the U.S. were quite heartened when Obama sent three separate letters of support to the American Chiropractic Association (ACA) during the presidential campaign. Most encouraging was the fact that Obama, the eventual winner, was the only presidential candidate in either party to specifically respond to ACA’s detailed candidate questionnaire.
Aside from inclusion in a core benefit package, arguably the most critical goal for chiropractors (and other non-MD practitioners) is to codify in federal law a policy of nondiscrimination among types of providers, for both coverage and reimbursement. In other words, if spinal manipulation (or massage, physical rehabilitation, nutritional counseling, mindfulness meditation instruction, or any other procedure) is covered when performed by a medical or osteopathic physician, then it must always be covered at the same rate of reimbursement for any health practitioner licensed to provide it. Freedom of choice among providers and a level playing field on coverage and reimbursement are ideas whose time has hopefully arrived. More after the jump
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