Your Chiropractic Future

The Following except is taken from Gerard Clum, D.C., President of Life Chiropractic College West and is published at http://www.lifewest.edu/myfuture.html. Take a moment to read his comments on the need for your voice in the push for chiropractic care to be a focal point in the current healthcare reform.




My Future-Your Future-The Nation’s Future



Colleagues,

Over the past few months we have all heard and read a great deal about national health reform. We have all felt a bit frustrated in trying to enter the debate or to respond to proposals because so little detail has been available. At this point in the game, that is changing by the hour and it is time to enter the fray!

It appears that there are two windows of opportunity between now and the end of the year for health care reform legislation to be brought forward in Congress. The first is as a part of the budget process at the end of the summer and the second is as a part of Medicare-related tidying up at the end of the year. Either way, the time to get involved is now.

President Obama got elected in large part due to the Internet and social networking opportunities. In the discussion of health care reform it is easy to throw up your hands, assume the big players of pharma, medicine and hospitals will have their way, and the opportunity for input by the average citizen-consumer or citizen-provider will be lost in the shuffle.

Mr. Obama tells us it isn’t going to be that way and that each and every one of us has the opportunity for input, the opportunity to be heard. We can choose to defer to those who will speak up, or we can speak up. I am asking you, pleading with you and begging you to speak up.

Let’s use the tools that got the president elected to speak to him and our elected officials and their staff members who will be penning the language that will shape the future of health care in America. Lest you think that nothing is happening, consider that on June 18, Senator Hatch offered an amendment to Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee of the Senate to include chiropractors in community health centers. At the same time in the House Armed Services Committee language was put forward that expands chiropractic services for the military. Both measures were accepted and are moving forward as part of larger legislative packages.
Getting Involved--The ABC’s

First and foremost, YOU need to write a letter to Mr. Obama, your representative and your senators.

What to say: Make it short and sweet. More than one page is wasted. Let them know that inclusion of chiropractic services as an essential service on a direct access basis in health reform will increase efficiency, lower cost and increase safety in health care—especially for neuromusculoskeletal problems. This will be accomplished because chiropractic care is high-touch, low-tech, offers an option to medication and the related side effects and offers higher levels of patient satisfaction than other forms of care.

How to send it: The best mode of transmission is by fax to their Washington offices, next is by U.S. post to their local offices, next is by e-mail.
Note: Legislators are not 20-somethings; they appreciate e-mail but they understand a stack of mail better. Mail sent by U.S. Post to Washington, D.C. is redirected to a security clearance center and is delayed by weeks. Don’t send mail to their Washington, D.C. addresses

Where to send it: For the local address of your member of the House of Representatives visit www.house.gov; for your Senators visit www.senate.gov; for the President, address your letter as follows:

The Honorable Barack Obama
President of the United States
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President,

Before you send it: Use your spellchecker, make sure it is less than one page, leave your life’s story out of it, politely tell them what you want and say thank you!
Second step

We all need to think strategically. We all need to leverage our relationships to impact this situation. Stop for a moment and think about the spheres of influence in your life—your family, your church, your neighborhood, your civic organizations, your classmates, your friends, your Facebook and Twitter contacts. One of the goals for you will be to bring the urgency of this message to all of them.

After you have identified all the sub-worlds within your world, think about how you can best contact them and enlist them in this effort. Some will be people you need to speak to and then follow up with an e-mail or a tweet, others will be Internet-oriented contacts you can address electronically. Consider customizing your contact in a way that will maximize their response.

Send them a copy of the letters you sent to your Representative, Senators and the President. Encourage them to do the same. Send them the URL for this page www.lifewest.edu/myfuture.html and encourage them to get involved. Their involvement can be for all sorts of reasons, to protect their own access to chiropractic care, to protect your access to chiropractic care, to protect your career, to ensure fairness and freedom of choice in health care, to make you happy, or to get you to stop e-mailing them about whether they have followed through as you requested. Then keep following through with them and ask them to confirm that they have written their elected officials as well.
Third step

Lend your support to centralized efforts in the profession to bring our message to our elected officials. Visit the ICA’s website at www.chiropractic.org or go directly to www.adjustthevote.org/cdd/subscribe Visit the ACA’s website at www.acatoday.org or go directly to www.chirovoice.org and sign up to be a part of their efforts.

Background and Briefing Materials:

The American Chiropractic Association (ACA), the Association of Chiropractic Colleges (ACC), the Congress of Chiropractic State Associations (COCSA) and the International Chiropractors Association (ICA) have all agreed upon a “white paper” to address government on a unified basis with respect to health care reform. A copy of this 28 page report can be accessed at: www.lifewest.edu/myfuture/summitreport.html

President Obama recently addressed the annual meeting of the American Medical Association on health care reform. A copy of his remarks can be found at www.lifewest.edu/myfuture/ObamaAMA.html

A Recent Time/CNN article on health care reform identified 5 key roadblocks to the achievement of health care reform. A copy of the Time article can be accessed at:
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1902708,00.html

The New Yorker Magazine recently ran an article that Mr. Obama cited as detailing “the problem” and “what we need to fix in health care”. A copy of that article can be found at:
www.lifewest.edu/myfuture/newyorker.html

“On the Plains of Hesitation bleach the bones of countless millions who, at the Door of victory, sat down to wait, and waiting—died.”

Gerard Clum, D.C.
President
Life Chiropractic College West
25001 Industrial Blvd
Hayward, CA 94545
gclum@lifewest.edu
(510) 780-4500 ext. 4550

Dr. Stephen Lachuta is a graduate of Life Chiropractic College West. For additional information, please call Northgate Chiropractic at
(206) 367-2224.