I have to say that the needle on my skeptic meter just broke. Again. ike a lot of people, every year I have to renew my medical insurance where I work. It only takes a minute, it’s all done online of course, and I choose the same plan I have had for several years now. I haven’t really looked to see if the coverage has changed since I originally opted in those years ago and was interested if there was additional coverage, or, what I was expecting, something the plan no longer covered.
I wasn’t surprised overall but I came across a coverage that I recall has been there since day one that really angers me: Chiropractic. People wonder why their premiums for medical coverage are so high and here’s an example of why. This is something I would never use because even though these practitioners of voodoo call themselves doctors, well, no, sorry, they’re really not.
It’s even been documented that these treatments may be dangerous. That’s right, getting an adjustment because of a back or neck problem could injure someone – permanently.
Why not just include homeopathic remedies in the policy as well? They are about as effective, aren’t they? I’m not one to make a suggestion to our fearless leaders in Washington, but maybe, if they’re looking for a way to lower individual/family insurance premiums, take a look at what is covered and remove anything that is voodoo “medicine” as something to be covered. Watch those premiums fall.
The reason I say that is because a couple of years ago I had a conversation with someone I know in the health insurance industry. She told me that premiums were based on 3 main criteria: Sex, age, and over health of the insured. That makes sense of course. She went on to say that there was a 4th – risk assessment of certain procedures. I asked what that meant and was told that the riskier a procedure covered, the more expensive the premium. Did chiropractic fall into this category? Yes, I was told although not as high some others, but covering chiropractic would definitely add to the monthly premium because it’s not a real medical procedure.
Take that in. Not a real medical procedure. So why is it covered if it’s not deemed a medical procedure? I couldn’t get much of an answer other than it’s a common practice and that companies, to keep people, ask that it be covered. Yeah, it didn’t make sense to me either.
Years ago, when I was married, my wife became mostly disabled by a lower back problem. She went to a pain specialist (an M.D.) to hopefully receive some sort of diagnosis. Even after an MRI, he could find nothing wrong, telling her that it was probably muscular. At that point, she decided she wanted to see a chiropractor. I shook my head, No, as I’ve never known anyone to be cured of any ailment by any of these people not to mention that everything I’d read about it told me that in fact it could make the problem worse.
She ended up going to get a massage. Yes, a massage. Guess what? The problem slowly disappeared over a few sessions and of course I didn’t mind us paying for that if she wanted to go every week. Although voodoo was covered in our insurance, massage wasn’t. Still a fix for $50 per session was a lot cheaper and a lot less risky than someone manipulating the spine that never went to medical school.
That’s why my meter broke. I’m still paying for garbage “medicine” that I shouldn’t. In fact, I’m going to call the company next week to find out how much covering this procedure costs me a month. I’ll update if I ever find out.
Conservative Skeptic 
I want to argue with you about this. But I can’t. My personal experience was not so good. I told the guy I had a disk problem and not to do an adjustment. He did it anyway. Hurt like hell. I told him that the only reason I did not kill him was I would have to do it slowly and he would call for help. He said, “You must have a disk problem. You need to see someone.”
The one helpful experience I had was every day for two weeks, and the physical therapist on staff did 90% of the treatment/work.
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I have friends that swear by chiropractic. One long time friend has been going most of his adult life, once a month, because of a neck injury he received playing football in high school. Now, an orthapedic surgeon told him a simply, moinimally invasive surgy could be performed to repair the damage permanently, he refused the treatment as he viewed it as “too risky”.
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My mom once told me that dad would need a cane to go to the chiropractor. She would carry the cane home and he would be fine for a while. I see no reason to use them for my issues.
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Beware of any surgeon that wants to do any invasive surgery on your spine or wants to give you epidurals without fluoroscopic assistance. One little prick of your spinal cord and you will probably end up with an intractable pain condition (never goes away until you are dead) called Adhesive Arachnoiditis. The pharmaceutical treatment is anti-inflammatories, and most important, high doses of opioids for the rest of your life. It is a progressive condition that affects your whole body because it forms scar tissue that messes with all your central nervous system. So much fun now with The War On Opioids. The pain untreated is likened to end stage bone cancer or renal cancer. Suicide is not uncommon anymore since victims of AA cannot get pain relief from their doctors and are treated like drug addicts. The experts seem to believe that if pain is only at 4 to 6 on a scale of 1 to 10, then their job is done. If the pain is worse, well then take Tylenol ER, as it helps many of our patients….who do not have AA.
So…a good Chiropractor, who is also a medical doctor can help often when there are other conditions with joints and spine and much of it is like Physical Therapy. We never thought we would go to a Chiropractor, but his work with my husband has been very beneficial to his neck pain, which was the original problem…and also has helped him improve his posture, which altered because he sat and walked to alleviate his neck pain.
It does nothing for his lower spine and the doc stays away from that. It does nothing for the other pain nor the other problems associated with AA, which are much like the discomforts of those suffering with Dysautonomia.
For some with Fibromyalgia, a specially geared massage from a knowledgeable Chiropractic assistant can be good.
As with all those in the medical field, the patient must beware and be informed and cautious when considering alternative treatments and medicine.
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