Commission Chiropractors in the US Military

The Big Issue

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Despite being authorized in 1992 there are, as yet, no commissioned chiropractors in the US Military

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 2008 according to Tricare's website, barely a fifth, 49 of 232, Military Treatment Facilities (MTF) offer chiropractic services. Currently there are two bills in congress calling for the immediate commissioning of chiropractors into the US Armed Forces. Both the US House (HCR 294) and Senate (SCR 75) have introduced concurrent resolutions attempting to express the desire of congress that chiropractors be commissioned in the US Military.

This site is not to place blame. It is designed to inform, and to find a way to make commissioned chiropractors in the US Military a reality. Congress has done a lot. The Navy has been very supportive. Many people have worked hard to bring this needed care to our troops. There is more that we can do. There is more that we should do, after all this is a government by the people.

Tell us your story

Many service men and women have tried to utilize the benefit guaranteed to them by law only to find out that they are unable to access care for what ever reason. If you have had an experience like this let us know.

Help us get chiropractors commissioned

If you'd like to know what you can do check out our links or to contact your governmental representatives click here.

If you have some information, questions you'd like answered, or corrections to the information posted you can help by sending them to us.

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Chiropractic and the US military

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