U.S. Rep. Ron Kind (D-WI) April 2 announced his support of the Chiropractic Care Available to All Veterans Act.
The bill requires chiropractic care and services at all VA medical centers by the end of 2016 and designates chiropractic care as a standard benefit for VA health care.

“One of the many important lessons learned from Monday’s field hearing in Tomah is that veterans must have better access to treatments other than drugs for pain management,” Kind said in a statement. “The Chiropractic Care Available to All Veterans Act is vital to improve care for our veterans and that’s why I will be cosponsoring it. We owe it to our veterans to provide them the best health care possible and that includes timely access to the many alternative treatments beyond opioid therapy.”

The legislation is supported by the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Paralyzed Veterans of America, the American Legion, Vietnam Veterans of America, National Chiropractic Leadership Conference, and the American Chiropractic Association.

As Interim Under Secretary for Health Dr. Carolyn Clancy testified at the Tomah field hearing, “Chronic pain management is challenging for Veterans and clinicians -- VA continues to focus on identifying Veteran-centric approaches that can be tailored to individual needs that may also include physician therapy, acupuncture, chiropractic treatments, and other modalities in addition to medications.”

Last month, Kind introduced the bipartisan Veterans Pain Management Improvement Act, which would establish a pain management oversight board within each Veterans Integrated Service Network (VISN) comprised of health care professionals and clinical patients and/or family members of a clinical patient.