RSSObama’s Letter to Chiropractors
Comments (1) With the election of Barack Obama to the White House we will no doubt see some form of universal healthcare come to fruition. I am confident chiropractic will rise to the top being cost effective and evidence based. Below is a letter from Obama to the chiropractic profession.
Dear Friends:
Doctors of chiropractic now make up over 60,000 licensed professionals in all fifty states,
and care for millions of Americans every year. Almost a quarter of Iowans receive
quality chiropractic care every year. As you know, chiropractic care is low-cost, drugfree,
noninvasive, and has been shown to have a positive impact on patients’ health. I
believe steps should be taken to acknowledge the important care chiropractors provide,
and knock down unreasonable barriers of access and discriminatory insurance coverage
that stand between so many patients and the care they need.
I have a plan to support doctors of chiropractic. First, I support expanding the range of
chiropractic services covered by Medicare. Medicare currently provides reimbursement
only for chiropractic adjustments, even though doctors of chiropractic are trained and
licensed in all fifty states to provide a range of other Medicare-covered services. I
support reimbursement reform that will reward and reimburse those who deliver high
quality care and whose patients achieve good health outcomes, without restrictions
against chiropractors or other health care professionals licensed to provide such care.
Second, I recognize that neither the Department of Veterans Affairs nor the Department
of Defense has achieved full integration of the services of doctors of chiropractic into
their health systems despite direction from Congress. I support careful examination into
the policy and practical barriers that restrict access to such services in order to remedy
this problem.
Third, I support commissioning doctors of chiropractic as officers in the Uniformed
Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service. The U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned
Corps is comprised of approximately 6,000 public health professionals dedicated to
delivering the nation’s public health promotion and disease prevention programs and
advancing public health science. Given the critical role that doctors of chiropractic serve
in each of these functions, I believe that we should commission chiropractors as officers
in the Uniformed Corps.
Finally, under the universal health care plan I have proposed, Americans will have access
to a public insurance plan that will include comprehensive coverage, including all
essential health care benefits. Benefits that are evidence-based or meet the current
accepted standard of care would be eligible for coverage, and as such many, if not all,
chiropractic services provided by doctors of chiropractic would be included in the public
benefit package.
My health plan also prioritizes preventive care, and chiropractors play a significant role
in this effort. As we shift our health care delivery system towards a culture of wellness
and disease prevention, I believe that chiropractors must play an integral role in
expanding access to preventive care and strengthening our public health system.
I look forward to discussing these important issues with you over the course of the next
several months.
Sincerely,
Barack Obama
