Choosing a good chiropractor is an important part of your health care— but only a part. You should be open to using both alternative and conventional medicine to support your overall well-being and vitality. As a chiropractor, my job is to focus on correction of subluxation; it’s not my objective to provide all the care someone needs. I prefer that my patients have a good team of doctors working for them, including a conventional medical doctor, a dentist, perhaps a nutritionist or a naturopath, and other specialists as needed. The key is to find doctors who are willing to support a team approach to your health. More and more allopathic medical doctors are becoming open to the benefits of alternative medicine, so when choosing your primary-care physician, make sure to ask, “Do you work with health care practitioners like chiropractors?” (In fact, with a few small changes, you could use the questions in the Chiropractic Interview to evaluate any health care provider— conventional, alternative, or in between.) If you find your current allopathic doctor discourages the use of alternative means of health care, you may wish to find one who is more in tune with your own ideas about health.
In this era of skyrocketing health care costs, chiropractic care is still relatively inexpensive. Although it is important to know what your current health insurance will cover, in some cases it may be necessary to go outside of your insurance to get the care you need and desire. Insurance was originally designed to avoid catastrophic financial losses, not to pay for every health care cost that arises. Throughout the United States and Canada, most insurance coverage includes chiropractic care. (The more innovative plans will even allow you to use a chiropractor as your primary-care physician.) Of course, some plans are better than others, and many will only pay for acute care, not care designed to restore full function and maintain health. If you wish to make chiropractic a part of your regular health care regimen, you may need to do a little research and consider that at least some of your care will have to be paid out of pocket. Most chiropractors have payment plans and financial arrangements to suit family health care needs. But whether or not you have health insurance that will cover all of your chiropractic needs, the increased health and vitality you will gain from regular chiropractic care will
be well worth the expense.
The bottom line is, be informed. How you take care of your health is your choice, so make sure that you become an informed and active consumer of conventional and alternative medicine alike.
Make an appointment now and find out more.