The history of chiropractic support of our military personnel is long.  In 1944 the first bill to commission chiropractors was introduced in the United States Congress.  In 1985 the DoD was directed to determine cost effectiveness of chiropractic.  The first President Bush authorized the DoD to commission chiropractors in 1992.  The Chiropractic Health Care Demonstration Program (CHCDP) that ended in September 1999 showed overwhelmingly that chiropractic would be beneficial to our troops and to the military.  It was replaced by the Chiropractic Care Program in 2001, which was to extend chiropractic care to all active duty military personnel by 2003.  In 2004 the Secretary of Defense was required to speed up the implementation of this program so that all service men and women would be able to access chiropractic care by October of 2005.  Currently in 2009 according to Tricare’s website, barely a fifth, 49 of 232, Military Treatment Facilities (MTF) offer chiropractic services.  Congress recently passed legislation requiring 11 new facilities to open this year, bringing us to 60 of 232.  The location of these new facilities was announced July 2nd in an ACA press release.

There is always political activity on the topic of chiropractic in congress here is a link to follow the action.  And here is one specifically for the DoD.  Currently there are no bills calling for the immediate commissioning of chiropractors into the US Armed Forces.  Your congressperson can be the one to propose the new bill. President Obama pledged to investigate this situation.  Let’s hold him to that!  He can get it done all on his own if he chooses.