April 2008

Italy passes licensing law

The Italian Parliament has passed a law recognizing doctors of chiropractic as primary health care providers. The statute comes 33 years after the founding of the nation's first chiropractic organization, Associazione Italiana Chiropratici (AIC), and 17 years after legislation was initially introduced to achieve that status.

In a letter to the profession, AIC President John G. Williams, DC announced that "after years of unsuccessful attempts at professional recognition, an amendment concerning chiropractic, inserted into the annual budget law, finally opened the door of Italy's nationalized healthcare system to doctors of chiropractic."

Dr. Williams noted that Italy has the highest ratio of medical doctors to patients in the world (roughly 400,000 medical doctors in a population of less than 57,000,000) yet has fewer than 300 chiropractors.

Given these figures, Williams explained, getting the law passed "was certainly no easy feat."

First, the amendment was presented by Senator Luigi Lusi who is credited with guiding it out of the Senate's Budget Committee. In the Camera, the Italian equivalent of the US House of Representatives, the amendment was the target of an extensive lobbying attack on the part of the Italian Medical Association, Williams stated. The bill was opposed by the medical community, which attempted "to monopolize nonconventional medicine through their own legislation, and (by) the Italian Health Minister who was opposed to recognizing chiropractic as a primary contact profession," he added.

The AIC countered the attack with its own lobbying efforts and relied heavily on Sen. Lusi's support of chiropractic to explain the cost-effectiveness advantages to his colleagues in the House Budget Committee.

He managed to convince them that "chiropractic was a good investment for Italy's financially burdened healthcare system," Williams noted. Eventually, the bill gained bi-partisan support thanks in great part to former Olympic skier, Manuela Di Centa, a member of the Chamber of Deputies for the opposition party, Forza Italia.

"This collaboration between majority and opposition Parliamentarians proved to be the winning combination that enabled chiropractic to overcome the resistance of the medical lobby and navigate its way through the insidious risks present in the Italian Parliament," said Williams.

Although acknowledging the tremendous effort put forth by members of the AIC and doctors around the country, Williams gave the bulk of the credit to Lusi and Di Centa.

"We all worked hard to arrive at this result, but the real difference between this successful campaign and the many failed attempts of the past, lies in the commitment demonstrated by Sen. Lusi and Di Centa. Sen. Lusi was motivated by his personal conviction of the merits of chiropractic, while Manuela Di Centa is an ex-world champion of cross country skiing, whose career was helped and prolonged by chiropractic and who openly declared her desire to repay this positive experience with chiropractic by helping to recognize the profession in Italy."

The AIC will celebrate its victory from June 26-28, in Rimini, Italy while hosting a Parker Seminar event. For more information, visit www.chiropratica.it .