Yes, because you have the federal government trying to give insurance to every citizen in this country. And to do that, it’s going to cost a lot of money. Basically, we hear stories that the federal government is bankrupt, from the president. So they’re going to be looking to cut and eliminate where they can for purposes of cost savings. We don’t want to be cut or gutted in the process. Hence, what we have to do is to remain very pro-active.

We have to get our public to speak up for us, that’s the key. The patients have to be mobilized. That’s going to be critical on any vote that takes place. The legislators have to know that chiropractic is an essential service and that the public is demanding it. I think for the first time in our history, the profession is pulling together in one direction. I mean, you’ve got 40 groups. That’s just never happened before. It’s historic.

It was before my time, but I remember hearing from people who were there that in the battle for chiropractic inclusion in Medicare in 1973, a million letters arrived at the office of the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. The sheer size of that pro-chiropractic message apparently made a real difference. You are saying that in this era, with the stakes this high, we have to have even more.

Absolutely.

And that chiropractors and others concerned for the profession need to know that their voice matters when added to all the other voices.

Undoubtedly.

What else would you like to tell our readers?

The profession is at a crossroads that it has never approached before. We can help determine our future. But unfortunately, our profession sometimes gets a little lazy. They don’t do what’s needed; they think the guy down the street is going to do it. This effort is going to require every single solitary chiropractor to work with their patients, their families, their friends, and their relatives to get them into the database because we’ve been told that we are going to need millions of people this time. A million isn’t going to cut it; a million may sound like an impressive number, but when you’re looking at a country with 300 million people, a million is not that impressive.

And in this case, unlike the chiropractic efforts on Medicare or the VA or the DOD, it’s not just chiropractors that are seeking support from legislators. Every health-related group is making an effort on their members’ behalf simultaneously.

Absolutely. We’re all at the dance together. It’s sort of like a contest. We’re going to see who is going to sustain themselves and come out at the other side of this marathon. Whether or not chiropractic is going to be there in the same shape and form as it is now remains to be seen. I believe that it rests largely in the hands of the individual DC out there on the street. The major organizations can put together the plan and we can take it to the chiropractic profession. But if all chiropractors don’t get activated, if they don’t become pro-active in the process, it’s not going to get done.

Daniel Redwood, DC, the interviewer, is an Associate Professor at Cleveland Chiropractic College–Kansas City and Editor-in-Chief of Health Insights Today.