Can We Heal Health Care?
It's time to heal health care
As everyone has seen, on TV, radio, and in the newspaper, the hot topic across the country has been health care reform. This debate has been going on with intensity for the past few months and will likely require at least a few more months before more specific changes are determined for health care reform.
What will the coverage cost? Who will pay for the coverage? Who will get the coverage? What health care services will be covered? Will patients be able to still choose to see their own doctors? Will services be limited? Will taxes be increased to fund these reforms? We just do not know yet.
There is something we can do to ensure the following GOOD changes are made:
In a 5 year Department of Defense Study, findings showed that drug use, hospitalization and surgery could be significantly reduced when patients were seen for their back problems by a Doctor of Chiropractic. The study showed a 50-75% reduction in hospital events for chiropractic patients compared to medical patients with similar conditions.
Because of the DOD study, our servicemen and women now receive chiropractic care at more than 50 sites across the country, with 11 more soon to be added. These positive results were dependent upon military patients having chiropractic care readily available. MDs, DOs, and PTs could not duplicate the chiropractic results. Chiropractic patients, as you might guess, were also significantly more satisfied with their care than medical patients were.
Results speak for themselves. So,we want to ensure that our chiropractic patients continue to have good access to their Doctors of Chiropractic and all the health and wellness focused services we offer. Dr. Andrew Weil (MD) speaks out for conservative care, saying medicine needs to be more focused on low tech, high touch care.
The American Chiropractic Association, of which I am now the President, has created a website "chirovoice.org" where patients can sign up, receive periodic newsletters and send messages to their senators and representatives. ACA also has a Legislative Action Center with information and recommendations for action steps we can take as voters. Our patients have been signing up on chirovoice and sending messages to Congress. This will help a lot to ensure better health care reforms and protect your freedom of choice of health care providers.
Thank you to all of you who have been helping with this! If you have not signed up or sent any message to Congress yet, there is still time. Go to chirovoice.org and follow the directions to sign-up/sign-in. Then follow directions to send messages to Congress - either the ones written for you or write your own. Just click and send. It is much better to do everything we can as voters to encourage the right reforms now, rather than try to change bad, costly or restrictive reforms later. Let's all do our part. Sign up, watch for action alerts, and send messages whenever requested. Thank you!
Dr. Rick A. McMichael
What will the coverage cost? Who will pay for the coverage? Who will get the coverage? What health care services will be covered? Will patients be able to still choose to see their own doctors? Will services be limited? Will taxes be increased to fund these reforms? We just do not know yet.
There is something we can do to ensure the following GOOD changes are made:
- Freedom of choice in health care to see the doctor you choose.
- Reforms to current insurance company practices that refuse to sell insurance to those who need it most.
- Coverage for health care services that does not discriminate against any patients or health care providers.
- Reforms to focus health care on health and wellness and much less on disease and symptoms.
- Conservative care, like chiropractic needs to be emphasized as the first approach whenever possible - avoiding unnecessary drugs or surgery.
In a 5 year Department of Defense Study, findings showed that drug use, hospitalization and surgery could be significantly reduced when patients were seen for their back problems by a Doctor of Chiropractic. The study showed a 50-75% reduction in hospital events for chiropractic patients compared to medical patients with similar conditions.
Because of the DOD study, our servicemen and women now receive chiropractic care at more than 50 sites across the country, with 11 more soon to be added. These positive results were dependent upon military patients having chiropractic care readily available. MDs, DOs, and PTs could not duplicate the chiropractic results. Chiropractic patients, as you might guess, were also significantly more satisfied with their care than medical patients were.
Results speak for themselves. So,we want to ensure that our chiropractic patients continue to have good access to their Doctors of Chiropractic and all the health and wellness focused services we offer. Dr. Andrew Weil (MD) speaks out for conservative care, saying medicine needs to be more focused on low tech, high touch care.
The American Chiropractic Association, of which I am now the President, has created a website "chirovoice.org" where patients can sign up, receive periodic newsletters and send messages to their senators and representatives. ACA also has a Legislative Action Center with information and recommendations for action steps we can take as voters. Our patients have been signing up on chirovoice and sending messages to Congress. This will help a lot to ensure better health care reforms and protect your freedom of choice of health care providers.
Thank you to all of you who have been helping with this! If you have not signed up or sent any message to Congress yet, there is still time. Go to chirovoice.org and follow the directions to sign-up/sign-in. Then follow directions to send messages to Congress - either the ones written for you or write your own. Just click and send. It is much better to do everything we can as voters to encourage the right reforms now, rather than try to change bad, costly or restrictive reforms later. Let's all do our part. Sign up, watch for action alerts, and send messages whenever requested. Thank you!
Dr. Rick A. McMichael
