Organized traditional medicine has a long history of discrimination against the chiropractic profession. This was clearly demonstrated in a supreme court ruling against the AMA for antitrust.

In general, MD/DO's are both trained in and openly refer to almost all other branches of health care, with the singular exclusion of chiropractic.

The "gatekeeper plan" requires the very group which competes with, and has a history of bias against chiropractic, to "grant permission" to patients who wish to exercise their choice of provider.

Health insurance SIMPLY IS NOT a free marketplace, by any measure. It is not reasonable to conclude that patients can simply "choose the plan" that offers sufficient chiropractic benefit for their need. Most often it is employers and pre-existing conditions which impede patients from choosing their plan of choice.

A case in point; insurance companies who propose a 24 hour hospital stay for childbirth. Women just cannot choose a different plan. It is simply not that easy.

Insurance companies SHOULD NOT be allowed to implement creative ways to "game" existing Iowa statutes requiring chiropractic inclusion, by imposing MD/DO "gatekeepers" (some of whom are even penalized for making a chiropractic referral).

This loophole in the Iowa statutes needs to be closed. The existing statutes already protects Iowans against being bullied out of a choice of health care provider by their insurance carrier.