Sign The Petition

Health insurance companies willingly pay for pharmaceutical and surgical treatment for pain patients, the most expensive and dangerous forms of care. Millions of Americans, most of them pain patients, have become addicted to prescription painkillers and over 200,000 have died of overdoses. Many have been subjected to surgical procedures that caused harm rather than helped them. Many who’ve tried these treatments are still in considerable pain.

At the same time, people in pain are being denied insurance coverage for safer, more effective treatments including physical therapy, massage, chiropractic, biofeedback, acupuncture, marijuana, low level laser therapy, psychotherapy, nutritional and herbal interventions.

We need a law that requires health insurance companies to cover all proven effective treatments for pain to the same degree that they cover pharmaceuticals and that requires physicians to be educated about these therapies.

Please support a Pain Treatment Parity Act that requires health insurers to provide coverage for alternative pain treatments that is equivalent to coverage of pharmaceuticals with respect to treatment frequency, length of treatment, pre-authorization requirements, co-pays, deductibles, medical necessity reviews and any other requirements that determine access to and affordability of care.

In addition, given that non-physician health care providers have not had increases in fees for more than 35 years, the Pain Treatment Parity Act should require that alternative pain treatment provider fees are increased on a par with past physician fee increases to insure continuing availability of these critical services.

Note: More information on the need for this legislation and the evidence for the safety and effectiveness of the pain treatments cited can be found in my book, The Truth About Chronic Pain Treatments: The Best and Worst Strategies for Becoming Pain Free.

To The President & Congress