Over 200 member DCs of the California Chiropractic Association (CCA) boarded chartered planes and buses bound for Sacramento for the annual legislative conference.
The day-long program allowed DCs to meet with their state senate and assembly representatives to lobby for health care issues. Important to chiropractic patients and DCs statewide are AB 621, authored by Assemblyman Tom Bane, and SB 1165, authored by Senator Ed Davis. AB 621 would standardize coverage for consumers of those services that both medical and chiropractic doctors provide. SB 1165 would help insure DCs receive fair consideration in affiliation applications to HMOs that offer chiropractic services.
In conjunction with the conference, CCA aired an intensive radio advertising campaign directed at influential business community leaders in Sacramento, April 28-May 7 to announce the positive results of recent back pain research: the two-year study of England's Medical Research Council that published their results in the British Medical Association's prestigious Journal. Subjects with severe and chronic pain improved 13% more than medical patients. Researchers in this study estimated that chiropractic care might reduce absence from work by some 290,000 days and save $25 million over a two-year period.
Another study by the California Medical Association's Western Journal of Medicine revealed that four out of five chiropractic patients enjoyed unrestricted activity within a week, while only half the medical patients recovered as quickly from the same back conditions.
The legislators received copies of these medical studies to ensure their understanding of the effectiveness of chiropractic.
CCA has also planned a larger, statewide media campaign beginning May 13 in business publications and on news/business radio stations. These radio spots will air on over 40 stations in 18 California media "markets."
Advertising citing research data will also appear in the California circulations of the Wall Street Journal, U.S. News & World Report, and Newsweek.
