Regardless of what you think politically about health care reform, you have to be impressed with the inclusion of non-discrimination language in the bill that recently passed.
As the health care reform debate heated up last year, ACA hired former US Representative Dick Gephardt’s firm to lobby for (and with) us on Capitol Hill. ACA had initiated the Chiropractic Summit in 2007 to work collaboratively with our partners across the profession...to carry ONE MESSAGE to legislators on the Hill. Former Majority Leader Gephardt and ACA lobbyists John Falardeau and Rick Miller worked around the clock over the past several months...along with Key Contact doctors... to include, and keep included, language that prohibits insurance companies from discriminating against a group of healthcare providers who are licensed in their state. This is an astonishing win for our patients’ choice. Patients should be able to go to any licensed healthcare provider they choose for a particular condition.
We have heard that there will be legal challenges to the healthcare bill that passed as well as attempts in the Senate and House of Representatives to make changes to the bill. The ACA will continue to work tirelessly to make sure our interests, and the interests of our patients are protected...and we will work in collaboration with our Summit partners. This has been an expensive proposition for ACA and well worth it. I would estimate we have spent over $500,000 in lobbying and staff expenses over the past year to get this done. And there is much work left to do, as the details of implementation begin to unfold.
If you are an ACA member, thank you very much for your support. If you are not, there is no better time to join. You can still be a part of chiropractic history in the making. You can help ensure our profession and our patients’ rights are protected. Many of us are focused on legislative changes at the state level and that is still important. But there is a sea change occurring out there at the national level and the changes that are being made now and in the immediate future may supersede all of the gains we've made at the state level over the past few decades. We are determined to gain needed expansion in covered chiropractic services under Medicare and to completely level the health care playing field for chiropractic doctors and patients.
For years the ACA has been moving persistently toward a positive vision for the chiropractic profession and a transformation in health care. This legislation is a big step forward toward those objectives.
Visit and join at www.acatoday.org if you have specific questions please contact ACA Downstate NYS Delegate Dr H William Wolfson at [email protected] or ACA Upstate NYS Delegate Dr. David Herd at [email protected]
Thanks in advance for your committed support!
Dr. David Herd
Dr H. William Wolfson
ACA NYS Delegates
