Iwas shocked to stumble upon a letter apperently written by president elect Barack Obama professing support for the chiropractic profession. Now, my intent for this blog is not to go out of my way to bash other professionals just to bash them. However, Obama's words concern me as they appear to indicate he is ignorance in regards to evidence based medicine and the problems with our healthcare system (over-utilization, excessive imaging, dogma and personal beliefs dictating treatment). From the letter posted on Chiroeco.com:
We need to knock down unreasonable barriers of access and discriminatory insurance coverage so Americans in need of quality chiropractic care can access it without difficulty. We need to expand the range of chiropractic services covered by Medicare, facilitate integration of doctors of chiropractic into the health care systems of the Department of Veterans Affairs and Department of Defense, and allow commission of doctors of chiropractic as officers in the Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service.
I am absolutely for the right for people to choose chiropractic care for their conservative musculoskeletal care. However, I draw the line at the government using my tax dollars to pay for "subluxation" treatments and excessive imaging. The biggest problem is that an evidence based chiropractor is called a Doctor of Physical Therapy.
Secondly, Obama's comment on "integrating" chiropractic is almost laughable. The very tennant of chiropractic is it's drive to SEPERATE itself from mainstream medicine. No comment on whether this is right or wrong, just stating a fact. They push anti-vacination, subluxation theory for health, pedicatric health through manipulation, and a wide variety of nutritional supplements. Is this what we want to spend our money on?
We are all looking and hoping for health care system reform. I just hope the reforms are well researched and done with the least amount of ingnorance possible.
Jason L. Harris
