The Bill Won't Pass Without Money

You’ll spend two thousand dollars to sit in a hotel ballroom for a weekend. Plane ticket, hotel, the meals you buy between sessions, the time away from your practice and your family. You’ll take it seriously. You’ll fill a notebook. You’ll feel the energy in the room. You’ll meet people who understand what you’re trying to build. You’ll listen to speakers talk about patient outcomes, about protocols, about leading differently, about what chiropractic could actually be if everyone operated at that level. The seminars work. The feeling is real.

You work hard because you have a family to provide for. You work because you have a vision of the life you want to build: the practice you want to run, the patients you want to care for, the freedom and security you want to achieve. That’s not something to apologize for. That’s fundamental. You understand that building something requires sustained effort, investment, sacrifice. You make that investment every single day in your practice, in your life. You know what it costs.

But when someone asks you to contribute fifty dollars a month to the actual infrastructure that makes Medicare modernization possible, the answer is no. Or it’s a maybe that never becomes a yes. Or it’s a version of no dressed up as something that sounds better.

I’m going to be direct about what’s happening here. You’re not broke. You have two thousand dollars for a seminar. You have money. You’re choosing not to spend it on this.

The excuses sound reasonable. I don’t trust MAHA because of the politics. I’m not an ACA or ICA member, so this doesn’t feel like my fight. I gave to my state association already. I don’t think the bill will pass anyway. My cash is tied up in the practice. I didn’t know it was an ask. My practice doesn’t see Medicare patients, so this isn’t relevant to me.

But here’s the thing. Every single one of those is a choice wrapped in a justification. You don’t trust MAHA? That’s a choice. You don’t want to join the associations? That’s a choice. You’re skeptical the bill passes? That’s a choice to let someone else fund the work. You didn’t know it was an ask? That’s a choice too. You could have asked. You don’t see Medicare patients? That’s exactly where you’re wrong.

The real truth underneath all of it is simpler than the excuses. Medicare modernization matters to you in theory. It doesn’t matter enough to you in practice to redirect fifty dollars a month from somewhere else. That’s not a character flaw. It’s just a prioritization. You’re allowed to make it. But you’re not allowed to pretend it’s something else.

Here’s what makes this particularly sharp: you understand better than anyone what it costs to build something. You do it every day. You invested in your education. You invested in your practice. You invested in your vision. You sacrifice weekends and family time because you believe in what you’re building. You know that infrastructure requires money. That growth requires sacrifice. That building something meaningful requires sustained investment from people committed to it.

So when you sit in that seminar room and listen to talks about expanding chiropractic’s place in healthcare, about better patient access, about the profession finally getting its due, you feel it because you understand exactly what that requires. You build things. You know what work looks like.

And then you walk out and refuse to fund it.

Think about that contradiction. You know what it takes to build a practice. You know what it takes to build a life. You invest constantly: money, time, energy. All of it goes into your vision. But when the profession asks you to invest in something you claim to want, the answer is no. When it comes down to actually putting money behind what you say matters, you step back.

You’re not broke. You’re making a choice. You’re saying “I want the results, but I want someone else to pay for the work.”

And here’s what you’re missing by thinking this isn’t your fight: Medicare modernization doesn’t stop at Medicare. It anchors everything downstream. When Medicare says chiropractic care is legitimate, covered, and billable for exams, x-rays, therapies and adjustments, that creates a template. Commercial carriers look at what Medicare covers and adjust their own policies. Regulatory bodies use it as a reference point. It shapes how the entire healthcare system thinks about what chiropractic actually is. It changes the entire game.

So even if you don’t see Medicare patients. Even if you’ve built a cash practice and you’re staying away from insurance altogether. The downstream effects hit you anyway. Commercial carriers look at Medicare policy and adjust their own policies. State boards reference Medicare policy when they consider regulatory changes. The profession’s positioning in healthcare gets better because Medicare modernization sets a new floor for what chiropractic actually is.

You’re going to benefit from this whether you fund it or not. You’re going to get the win. You’re just not paying for it.

That’s a different kind of choice than the excuses suggest. It’s not “this doesn’t apply to me.” It’s “this applies to me and I’m benefiting anyway, so why would I fund it?”

Because you can. That’s why.

The bill is closer than it’s ever been. We have 166 cosponsors in the House. We have bipartisan support. We have MAHA behind us. We have the ACA and ICA aligned, which should tell you something about the conditions right now. What we don’t have is consistent funding to sustain the work. To keep the pressure on the committee. To move through amendments. To finish the thing.

Some of you won’t fund this through ACA or ICA because of politics or membership status. Some won’t fund it through MAHA because you don’t trust the connection. Some are sitting out for tribal reasons that have nothing to do with the bill itself. That’s exactly why BAC-PAC exists. Not to replace the associations. To exist alongside them. To give you a way to fund the actual objective: the bill’s passage. Without first resolving every disagreement you have about how chiropractic should operate.

You can fund BAC-PAC because you want Medicare modernization. Not because you’ve joined something. Not because you’ve signed on to a camp. Not because you trust the politics or the players. Just because you want the bill to pass and you’re willing to put money behind it.

Donte to BAC-PAC

That’s the choice in front of you. Not in the seminar room. In your office. On your P&L. One visit a month. Fifty dollars.

You understand what it takes to build something. You do it every day. You invest, you sacrifice, you stay committed. You know that infrastructure costs money and that people who want the results have to fund the work.

The profession is asking you to apply the same logic you already understand. That’s all.

The seminars will make you feel like you’re doing something. This will actually do something. But only if you choose it.

Dr. Glenn Jaffe is a practicing chiropractor with more than twenty years in the profession. He served as president of the North Carolina Chiropractic Association and has worked at the national and legislative level on the profession's governance priorities. He is the founder of BoldAzure, a leadership platform for chiropractors. He writes about where the profession is, how it got there, and what maturation actually requires.

Learn more at boldazure.com