The art of survival requires us to keep those surprises to a minimum.
Right now, the chiropractic profession is mobilizing for the gargantuan task of trying to motivate the U.S. Congress in their reformation of President Clinton's health care reform. Obviously, it is very important that every DC and student get involved and get their patients involved.
But what if it doesn't happen?
Consider where the profession will be, and where your practice will be, if complete health care reform eludes the political process.
This may startle you, but there are a number of congressional members and political analysts who are not certain health care reform will come from Capitol Hill. Considering the lobbying power of the American Medical Association (AMA), the insurance industry and the hundreds of other special interest groups involved, including the chiropractic profession, Congress may find the pressures to reform health care too great and too complicated to solve.
The Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (AHCPR) is still moving ahead with the formation of practice guidelines for every health care procedure and treatment in existence. Most states have begun their own health care reform. And most health care professions, some kicking and screaming, have begun their own efforts at guidelines and reform.
In the midst of these and other developments, the insurance industry is repackaging health (and health related insurance i.e., automobile insurance) in their own effort to manage and control costs and quality. Nearly half of our nation's health insureds are now involved in some aspect of managed care.
So what is your contingency plan?
What is your state association doing to insure the future of chiropractic in your state should health care reform be an unattainable goal?
Napoleon Was a Lightweight!
Conventional wisdom states that you don't fight a war on two fronts. This is one of the major causes of Napoleon's (and Hitler's) military demise. The chiropractic profession is constantly fighting multiple battles on numerous fronts. We do not have that luxury.
No one knows if President Clinton's efforts at health care reform will be successful, or if the reform processes already at work will continue. To ignore either possibility could be suicidal.
Dynamic Chiropractic will continue to make every effort to keep you informed regarding the development (or lack) of national health care reform. But don't believe that this is the only possible outcome.
It is quite reasonable to expect no reform from Washington, D.C., and that our current efforts must be redoubled to maintain and increase chiropractic's presence in the health care arena.
DMP Jr., BS, HCD(hc)
Click here for more information about Donald M. Petersen Jr., BS, HCD(hc), FICC(h), Publisher.