H.R. 997 has been referred to the House Ways and Means Committee. Mr. Crane serves as that committee's ranking Republican member. The current Medicare program is spending over $100 million each year on chiropractic services, representing less than one percent of total Medicare spending.
Both the ICA and ACA have been actively lobbying for passage of the bill. An ICA delegation of Sid Williams, DC, James Corman, and Ron Hendrickson met with Newt Gingrich (R-GA) in his Capitol Hill office. Speaker Gingrich pledged to "help Mr. Crane with his Medicare bill."
Dr. Williams is urging DCs to organize and act to defend the rights of chiropractic patients, to "educate our national policymakers as to the validity, appropriateness and cost-effectiveness of chiropractic... "
The ACA stated it is dedicating its "full legislative advocacy resources" to the bill's passage, including a profession wide grassroots communication. The ACA first outlined the Medicare proposal in testimony to the House Committee on Ways and Means back in February. Since then, ACA officials have meet with each member of the key committees involved with Medicare reform, and ACA Chairman Lowry Morton, DC, has written to every House Republican to support an expanded role for chiropractic under Medicare.
Rep. Sam Johnson (R-TX), a member of the Health Subcommittee of the Ways and Means Committee who recently toured Parker College, dubbed the current Medicare reimbursement of chiropractic as anticompetitive, and that he would encourage support for the reform bill. Rep. Johnson, reports Craig Benton, DC, uses chiropractic to ease pain and disabilities incurred under torture as a North Vietnamese POW for seven years. An Air Force Thunderbird pilot, Rep. Johnson was shot down over North Vietnam in 1966.
Both national associations emphasize the need for chiropractors and patients to call and write their representatives to urge them to become co-sponsors of the bill. The associations have both prepared materials and developed strategies for grassroots action. For more information, call the ACA at (703) 276-8800, ext. 224, or the ICA at 1-800-243-4690.
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