April 2009

Seize the time!

by Don Harte, DC

"I don't skate to where the puck is. I skate to where it's going to be." -- Wayne Gretsky (hockey great)

Where are we going as a profession? After 113 years, where is chiropractic now, within society? Forget the answer you want to hear, the answer that so many of our pseudo-leaders will give you. The truth is, we're nowhere. We're marginal. We're on the fringe of the so-called health care industry. How about we look ahead, to plan to get somewhere, somewhere better?

We now have before us a grand opportunity. Our answer lies in the recent US election results, and in situations that already exist in many nations across the globe. There's no question that President Obama will push hard for socialized medicine, and will, no doubt, succeed.

I'm often amazed at the excitement all those allo-chiropractors display at the prospect of some imagined future for us as "part of the health care team." They think that these new "progressives" will take them into the bosom of establishment medicine, as equals to MDs. Yes, they'll be taken in, but not as equals. They'll be so far down the totem pole that they'll look up to the food service people in the hospitals. Our internal political problems will solve themselves… Darwin's Law.

What of the rest of us, the real chiropractors, who must and will stay out of the system, to continue to practice chiropractic as it is -- the analysis and correction of vertebral subluxation?

First of all, those who aren't yet "cash," welcome aboard now! Though chiropractic is "its own thing," we're viewed by society as being in medicine's massive shadow. But, what if that massive shadow shrinks, if the cult of medicine is shattered? Here's where opportunity lies.

Despite the political beliefs of some, it's an indisputable fact that a socialized system degrades the quality of medicine to a great degree. Americans spend 16% of their GDP on "health care," before socialization. When the government takes over, you can count on that 16% doubling, at the very least.

Political satirist PJ O'Rourke wrote, "If you think that health care is expensive now, wait until it's free." Americans expect and demand "the best" and "the latest," most especially for their health care. What'll happen when you take away incentive and freedom (intrinsic parts of a free market system) from top MDs, nurses, hospital administrators, medical device designers, researchers? There'll be no "top," and, therefore, no striving for anyone to reach for the top. In fact, top people will be shifted aside, so as not to "cause trouble," to allow for more "politically appropriate" people to take over.

Mediocrity will be the best to be hoped for in the beginning, and then things will get much, much worse. Modern medicine will go from being just "impersonal" to extremely impersonal. The concept of "my doctor," "my specialist," -- the very idea of choice, of any sort of personal bond, of any sort of professional relationship -- will become a thing of the past. Crises will develop, from vast nosocomial outbreaks, to corruption, to staff shortages, to sharp increases in iatrogenic disease and death.

Then, rationing will begin. That's right, rationing. Everything will be over-utilized, because it's "free." Physical structures, equipment and the people who run everything will begin to be overwhelmed, and then break down. People will die from waiting months for various procedures. Some, due to age or condition, will be denied certain procedures and drugs.

You may think all of this is just the product of my imagination, but I'm stating it here as fact, in advance. Look at the state of socialized health care in nations where it's existed for many years. Reports are coming out of the UK that waiting times for dental care are so long some dental sufferers have resorted to pulling their own teeth (ouch!).

So, what does all of this have to do with chiropractic? A socialized system will take the image of that beneficent, all-knowing PMG (pharma-medical-governmental) complex, and expose all the cracks in medicine's thinking and doing for anyone to see. Naturally, there'll be some extreme cultists who'll believe forever, but while the system falls apart, most will get desperate, angry and disgusted.

Undoubtedly, this will leave many open to a new, better, safer, more accessible, non-government-regulated way to get well and stay well. When the system collapses, or, at the very least, declines precipitously in society's view, people will be searching for an answer, a different answer... the Big Idea? And, here we are! Yet, while Louis Pasteur expressed a truism writing that chance "favors the prepared mind," the real question is whether we, as a profession, will be prepared.

Morality is another issue now foremost in the public eye. After years of reports of massive election fraud and up-front media bias, we were treated to the news that US Senate seats could be bought (the governor of Illinois story), and learned of a humongous, 25-year, $25 billion dollar Wall Street Ponzi scheme.  Reports continue to appear on the buying of science by Big Pharma, with the complicity of the FDA.

Clearly, the people have had it! They want honesty. They need someone… something… to trust.

We can't help them in government or finances, but we can deliver real, honest health care, rather than the massive (often life-threatening) lie that is "health care"/disease care. The straight, cash chiropractic practice is the ultimate in honesty. You attract them, you teach them, and they either they get it, and they pay you, or they don't. Instead of delivering diagnosis and treatment (medicine), you deliver chiropractic. Simple and clean. 

Most of you can't even imagine us, the chiropractic profession, being on top, so let me lay it out for you.

We can count on those chiropractors who choose to remain in the allopathic swamp to go off to play with the physical therapists in hospitals. Let them go. Those who've always wanted to be subluxation-centered, to go cash, will make the transition, will clean things up in a short period of time. The three or four middling chiropractic schools will go totally straight (to join the one that already is... Sherman), and the allopathic institutions will just die. Subluxation-based organizations will become huge, with substantial war chests for political battles, and the rest will fade away (wave goodbye to the CCE). There will be a rapid and near-total change in the balance of power within the profession.

Demand for real chiropractic care will skyrocket. Student demand for the few remaining schools will escalate, resulting in rapid expansion of those institutions, along with far higher academic standards. (Wouldn't you love to have the equivalent of a Cal Tech or an MIT amongst chiropractic colleges, with the most gifted and passionate students clamoring to get in?) Many offices will literally see lines around the block. Insurance assignment will disappear, because there won't be any, except from "Big Brother." Chiropractic fees will rise to where they should be. Growth, in all ways, will be enormous.

If you're worried about who'll want to come to your "Chiropractic: The Big Idea" class in this future, you might be concerned instead with having a big enough venue for your class, and how you'll hold the class several times a week. Because in this changed health reality, people everywhere will be talking about this "new thing"… chiropractic.

Will you, will we, as a profession, "skate to where the puck will be," or… what? The time to get real, to get straight… is now!

(Dr. Don Harte, known as 'The Chiropractic Avenger' for battling the California Board, publishes a weekly ezine for chiropractors, "The Harte of Chiropractic" and offers personalized, principled coaching by the module. Contact him by phone at 415-847-9678 or e-mail harteofchiropractic@gmail.com  or visit his website www.harteofchiropracticconsulting.net )