BMJ 1996;312:1441 (8 June)

News

New York seeks to make chiropractic more available

The New York State Senate last month passed a bill requiring health plans in the state to provide unlimited insurance cover for chiropractic services. A companion bill in the New York State Assembly would require every hospital, surgical, or medical policy to provide cover for services provided by a chiropractor.

The bill in Assembly, which has the backing of the New York State Chiropractic Association, would also prohibit such policies from limiting or excluding cover for specified services provided by a chiropractor.

According to the Business Council of New York State, there are about 60 mandate bills under consideration in the legislature, and the new bill could increase costs by as much as $96m for Blue Cross and Blue Shield alone. Group Health Insurance also opposed the bill, estimating the extra cost to its subscribers to be over $10m a year.

Bryan Franke, assistant press secretary for the New York State Assembly, said that the fate of the bill now in the Insurance Committee was uncertain because of the concern over cost and the impact on health care insurance premiums. If the bill is passed by the Assembly, it could still be vetoed by Governor George E Pataki.

The bill has aroused some fierce opposition. A recent editorial in the New York Times declared: "A legislature beholden to special interests is increasingly concocting disconnected sets of medical benefits to satisfy those interests."--FRED B CHARATAN, freelance journalist, Florida


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