A little perspective on healthcare costs/chiro costs.

[Guest guest]

This recent article in NYT has updated figures on healthcare spending

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/25/too-much-medical-care/?smid=tw-nytimesw\

ell & seid=auto

It says USA now spends approx $8000/per citizen per year on healthcare!!!! No

other country is even close to us of course. And we are one of the sickest among

the developed nations and we all know this of course. Our annual healthcare

spending is 10x greater than in 1980 (when some of you were in practice) back

then, healthcare spending was approx $800/per person per year in USA.

Now, according to most studies, overall spending on chiro care is relatively

flat when compared to the astronomical increases in the rest of healthcare and

some figures that I have read put chiro spending at less than $40 (FORTY!) per

person per year in USA.

So that means that our profession accounts for less than approx .5% (or 1/200th)

of all healthcare spending.

So if you are going to look at ways to cut healthcare spending, ratcheting down

on chiropractic care is not going to make much of a difference in the big

picture.

So why does the gov't (VA, Medicare, medicaid, uniformed services) and private

sector payors always seem to be wanting to either prevent/cut/block/minimize

chiropractic coverage at every opportunity?

It is NOT because they are spending a lot on us...that argument is B.S. and

nonsense. The fact is that less than $40 per year, on avg. per person is spent

on chiropractic care. The main reason is because we (chiropractic patients,

really) are EASY PREY. And why are we easy prey? Because as good a job as our

trade association does and Vern and others do for us, we still have a relatively

puny voice due to the fact that MOST of us refuse to support the chiro trade

associations. The OCA in Oregon, is the chiropractic consumer's ONLY hope to

obtain any sort of rational, reasonable, fair and equitable coverage for

chiropractic care.

Please consider " biting the bullet " and getting on board with the OCA so that we

can double or even triple the efforts that we currently have underway because

that is probably what it is going to take to force these large corporations and

government entities to act rationally.