Christopher Cheshire, DOM
I just got off the phone with Dr. Christopher Cheshire who is not only a member of the Board of Directors at AAAOM, but is actually the person in charge at AAAOM for organizing the HR 646 lobbying effort.
Dr. Cheshire came across a post I wrote yesterday at ChineseMedicineTools.com and called me to set the record straight.
As you know, I was under the impression that the letters to Congress being submitted at the AAAOM website were only going to senators and not our representatives.
When you go to the AAAOM website to submit the electronic letter, you only see the pictures of your senators, but Dr. Cheshire is assuring us that they are also being delivered to our representatives. The senators get it first because it’s easier to determine who your senators are based on your zip code. However, because of overlapping zip codes in the different districts, determining the representative takes a few more seconds for the website to process. Anyway, I feel a lot better that both houses are getting the letters.
So what do we do now?
Now we must mobilize and mobilize fast!
Dr. Cheshire says that the passing of this historic bill means that acupuncture insurance would become available to 54 million Americans who currently do not have access to alternative medicine. Do you realize what this means for your practice? This is no time to put off taking action and getting people (I mean EVERYBODY you know) to go to the AAAOM website and submit the letter to Congress.
Dr. Cheshire told me that so far they have submitted 23,000 letters through their website, but need at least 100,000 to make this happen. The AAAOM lobbyists are actively talking to senators and representative and the feedback is this:
The members of Congress seem to have a positive opinion about acupuncture, but they need to hear it from YOU, and EVERYBODY you know. And this has to happen TODAY! Not manana… TODAY!
The future of your profession depends on HR 646 passing. So please, if you haven’t done so already, go to the AAAOM website right now (the link below takes you directly to the page) and submit your letter to your senators and representative. It literally just took me 1 minute and 58 seconds to submit mine. Then send an e-mail to everybody in your address book asking them to support this Bill.
http://www.rallycongress.com/aaaom/1944/please-support-hr-646-federal-acupuncture-coverage-act/
Anything worthwhile takes some kind of effort. Just like healing your patients greatly depends on their commitment and effort to getting better, the future of acupuncture depends on YOU today. The passing of this bill will put acupuncture on a whole new level. This has been in the works since 1995. Let’s get it done now!
PS– You have enough content to put together an e-mail to send to everybody in your address book from what I’ve sent you so far. Make sure you include the direct link so they don’t have to hunt for it and you’re done.
Thank you once again to Kim Marin, AP (Florida), Dennis Kinnane, OMD (California) and Christopher Cheshire, DOM (AAAOM.)
Frank Prieto is a marketing strategist helping acupuncturists generate highly qualified leads from the internet and converting more of them into new patients.
Many of us are working toward and doing all we can to spread the word. I even put up links and a statement on my website.. this is VERY important to us and our profession. Please if you have not yet sent your letters or called PLEASE DO!! This is our time to stand up and do something substancial for our profession.
I support acupuncture. Please help.
Acupuncture has greatly improved my health for the last 25 yrs. Acupuncture has been my medicine. .migraines gone….stress which leads to many diseases eliminated..insomnia gone all with acupuncture n natural herbs…I eliminated my need for allopathic medicine. ..but now I am retired n medicare insists I need allopathic medicine which I resent…which according to J A M A one of the top reasons for death n mistakes…on a. Now limited income I am being FOR ED to use a type of medicine I do not want…I am a retired R.N. so I know what I am saying to you.