Veterans Receive Chiropractic Care At Last! by Dr. Young

published in the Ventura County Star on March 12, 2025

http://staronline.com/vcs/opinion/article/0,1375,VCS_125_1026261,00.html

PRESIDENT BUSH SIGNS HISTORIC CHIROPRACTIC VETERANS LEGISLATION INTO LAW

In 1895 Dr. Daniel David Palmer established the chiropractic profession in the United States. In 1937, the chiropractic profession first introduced a bill in the U.S. Congress to create a health care benefit that would have provided chiropractic care for veterans. Over many decades, there was much effort on the part of medical groups to block patient access to doctors of chiropractic (DC). Until now, our veterans have been denied chiropractic care.

On January 23^rd, 2002 President Bush signed legislation mandating the establishment of a permanent chiropractic benefit within the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) health care system. This legislation, called the Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care Programs Enhancement Act of 2001 (H.R. 3447), had been passed by the Senate during one of the last actions of the 107^th Congress before its adjournment for the year. It authorizes the hiring of doctors of chiropractic in the DVA health system, sets a broad scope of chiropractic practice, and allows the chiropractic profession to oversee the development and implementation of the new benefit through an "advisory committee," partially composed of representatives of the chiropractic profession. The agreement is similar to legislative language that became law last year requiring the Department of Defense to establish a permanent chiropractic benefit for active duty military personnel.

"The passage of this historic law (Public Law 107-135) represents an enormous victory for America's veterans, who will now have access to the chiropractic care they have been denied for far too long," said American Chiropractic Association (ACA) President Daryl D. Wills, DC. "But this tremendous win is also a sweet victory for the chiropractic profession, because we prevailed after our opponents tried to beat us down at every turn. This legislation survived the attacks of the American Physical Therapy Association, the VA bureaucracy and other medical organizations - and it did so with strong bipartisan support."

The measure was championed by a strong bipartisan coalition led Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD), House Veterans Committee Chairman Chris Smith (R-NJ), Congressmen Jerry Moran (R-KS), Lane Evans (D-IL) and Bob Filner (D-CA), Senator Strom Thurmond (R-SC) and Senator Tim Hutchinson (R-AR).

Key provisions of the new law include:

· Immediate phase-in of the program.

· Designation of at least one DVA medical center in each geographic service area of the Veterans Health Administration to provide chiropractic services. The designated sites will be medical centers and clinics located in urban and rural areas.

· Scope of chiropractic services that "shall include a variety of chiropractic care and services for neuromusculoskeletal conditions, including subluxation complex."

· Dissemination of educational materials on chiropractic to primary care teams "for the purpose of familiarizing such providers with the benefits of chiropractic care and services."

· Establishment of a chiropractic advisory committee that will advise the Secretary on protocols governing referral to doctors of chiropractic, direct access to chiropractic care, scope of chiropractic and other issues.

Having practiced in Ventura for 19 years, I have observed an enormous increase in the public and medical awareness of, and appreciation of the value and importance of chiropractic treatment. Though it is difficult to understand or imagine how chiropractic care was kept from our veterans for 65 years, it is a pleasure to witness this effective form of healthcare now being made available to them. Before long all people of our country will have access to doctors of chiropractic that will be equal to the access that they have long had to medical doctors.

Kristofer Young, DC

Doctor of Chiropractic

Ventura, California