It is no secret that our healthcare system is a bloated and overpriced mess. RFK has had some wild theories on healthcare and President-elect Donald Trump may let him go wild on the system that is more about funding its excesses than making us healthy compared to the rest of the world. Sure, we have all the toys, more MRI machines, and high-tech machines than most Western countries, yet people are less healthy. Americans take more drugs than any other country yet we are less healthy. Is it what we eat or how we eat? Is it obesity? Is it doctors’ health recommendations? Is it a system more about feeding itself than helping us stay out of it? The experts are often representatives of those who are the problem: healthcare conglomerates, policymakers, and insurance companies, which are middlemen who have caused massive consolidation, drug companies that charge us so much more than other countries, and the segmenting of care into overspecialization. They ignore those on the front lines, such as doctors, chiropractors, and other providers. I cannot ever remember being asked how we can improve healthcare delivery. I know that we as chiropractors trained at National College in Illinois were taught how to function as primary care. Dr. Charschan has a suggestion; simplify. Now that a new administration is coming in, there are many newspapers offering articles on what to expect. While this sells news, does this help make our system better? How to improve the health of the average American. Do we need all these vaccines or are they collectively making us less healthy? While vaccines are very effective, so is our immune system. Can healthier eating, better nutrition and such reduce our need for flu shots, COVID shots, and many other vaccines that are of questionable value outside of pandemics? Perhaps we should rethink these broad one-size-fits-all healthcare policies. I do not doubt that RFK will. Transparency in drug pricing. Our current system allows for drug advertising on television. Who else allows this? The advertising cost is built into what we pay for drugs along with middlemen known as PBMs who have rebate deals with insurance companies that are more profitable than ever. We as Americans have no idea why drugs cost so much but when travel abroad, the price of drugs like Ozempic is often 1/10th the cost of what we pay. Mark Cuban began a company called Cost Plus which tells us what we pay, what he pays, and his standard markup for the drug. We need more of this type of transparency. Everyone should be a generalist first, and a specialist second. The current model which is a cash cow for large hospital systems has primary care which has been minimalized into urgent care, primary care sort of, and then their system of sending you from doctor to doctor. This is a costly mess as you pay for each provider who sees a section of you. This non-holistic model requires too many people in the decision-making process. While higher-end specialists are certainly needed, they should all be more holistic in their approach. Medical doctors admit their knowledge of the musculoskeletal system is poor resulting in more expensive tests when a good evaluation will often help them help the patient. Chiropractors should be the first referral for many of these patients which are often sent to orthopedics who send to therapists and then decide on procedures when this model fails to help the patient. Too many fall through the cracks. Broaden what primary care is and allow all who wish to help patients that are properly trained. Did you know your average chiropractor is more educated in internal medicine than most Physician assistants and Nurse practitioners? Unfortunately, these skills diminish when not used which is why so many chiropractors do not order blood panels but they would. Most specialists would do more primary care if insurance companies did not pay them either as specialists or generalists. Doctors like anyone else in healthcare do what they are incentivized to do. Chiropractors should be paid for all services as other physicians are which often is not the case. Obamacare, section 2706 includes the following: Section 2706(a) of the Public Health Service Act establishes federal non-discrimination protections for providers acting within the scope of their licensure in terms of participation and reimbursement under health insurance and group health plans, specifically group health plans and health insurance issuers offering group or individual health insurance coverage. A group health plan is any employee welfare benefit plan to the extent that the plan provides medical care to employees or their dependents directly or through insurance, reimbursement, or otherwise including both insured and self-insured plans. A health insurance issuer is any insurance company, insurance service, or insurance organization (including a health maintenance organization) that is licensed to engage in the business of insurance in a State. The law provides that the various States may enforce the provisions of 2706(a) and if the states fail to do so, the federal government “shall enforce” Section 2706(a) when a “State has failed to substantially enforce” the law. Despite the law’s provisions, the states have not enforced the law and the federal government has not followed the law’s clear requirement to do so. To date, this law has not been enforced which has reduced the competition and allowed discrimination against chiropractors and their patients. Allow a public option and expand coverage for chiropractic care for seniors under Medicare. This would reduce drug use, and improve musculoskeletal health for seniors and has been shown to reduce falls as seniors have better balance and stability when they move and feel better. Also, so many drugs affect cognition while failing to improve the quality of life. It also drives more specialist visits which drives drug use. Allowing physical therapy to be more affordable under Medicare than chiropractic care when the chiropractors are higher physician-level providers makes no sense. The Chiropractic Medicare Modernisation Act legislation can change this and save the system money. It will also make it profitable for hospitals to hire chiropractors to reduce their costs and improve care. Improve the quality of food with a culture change in how we farm, how we eat, and what we eat. Would we require Ozempic then if the benefits it offers come with fewer obese people? Improve funding models for Medicare for providers. Medicare is the gold standard for care in the USA. Medicare Advantage plans offer what seems like expanded coverage with more caveats. Keep it simple, for-profit healthcare is a driver of health costs. Improving health does not mean more doctor visits. Large systems are now using AI and other means to text you to make doctor visits you may not require. Is healthcare by numbers keeping us healthy? Not compared to the rest of the world. Wondering if this works. See how long it takes to get your next primary care or specialist visit and then answer the question. Pain relievers are part of the problem. Visiting the right provider wouldn’t be if we went back to lower copayments and patients did not have huge deductibles. Patients often delay care until their problems worsen and cost more. You don’t have to wait for RFK to make his suggestions and force both good and bad changes to our system that is broken. It is your body and your health and you can make better choices. Chiropractors can help you make those healthy choices at an affordable cost and avoid expensive tests and procedures you do not need. Pay doctors to visit their patients while in the hospital again and bring back true primary care with an expanded vision of who can provide it. Change the model to health rather than sickness and intervention. This one idea reduces the need for doctors, systems, drugs, and interventions. So how do we get there? Less is more. In pain? Need help today? Book online.