July 28, 2003 - Report to the Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine Community about the Federal Acupuncture Coverage Act of 2003 (H. R. 1477)

By Robert E. Marcus, J. D., Marcus & Associates

Have you visited the “Co-sponsors” link on CAOMA's “Medicare Page?”  If not, please click onto that link for an updated list of current co-sponsors of the Federal Acupuncture Coverage Act of 2003.  There you can see if your congressman or congresswoman is a co-sponsor of H. R. 1477, and when they signed on.

If your representative is already a co-sponsor, we encourage you to thank them by letter and/or by e-mail.  If you don't know who your representative is, you can find out and how to contact them, by clicking http://www.congress.org, and entering your zip code on that website.
    
If your representative is not a co-sponsor of H. R. 1477, please see the HR 1477 Text link, so you can read the bill.  We encourage you then, if you'd like to support the passage of H. R. 1477, to send your representative a constituent letter with some of your own “personal testimonial experiences with acupuncture.”

Your constituent letter is extremely important, indeed essential, in generating the grassroots support needed to achieve a critical threshold of one-hundred co-sponsors that will open the door to H. R. 1477 being scheduled for a hearing, mark-up and a vote in the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health.  Once H. R. 1477 is reported by the full Committee on Energy and Commerce, that will set the stage for the Hinchey Bill to go to the Rules Committee, and ultimately to the floor of the House for a vote.

Sample Letter to Your Congressional Representative:

You can model your letter based on the following sample constituent letter provided by Rep. Hinchey's office:

    Dear Congressman/Congresswoman (name):

As an acupuncture (provider/patient) in your district, I urge you to cosponsor H.R. 1477, the Federal Acupuncture Coverage Act. The bill, sponsored by Congressman Maurice Hinchey, would add an acupuncture benefit to Medicare and the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) plan.

I am one of millions of consumers who knows how effective acupuncture can be in treating chronic pain, addiction, and respiratory and digestive ailments.  (Patients could add some personal testimonial on their experience with acupuncture)

For patients in search of safe, holistic treatments with little or no side effects, acupuncture has become an integral part of the health care regime. It is a safe, effective and inexpensive alternative to Western medicine. That's why more than 70 percent of the nation's insurers now cover some acupuncture treatments.

The Federal Acupuncture Coverage Act would expand acupuncture services for Medicare's 39 million seniors and disabled persons and for the nine million federal employees and their dependents.  Federal employees, seniors and the disabled should have the freedom to choose acupuncture.

   Sincerely,

Name

Address

City, State, Zip

E-mail

Contact Your Representative, and Contact Your Lobbyist

If you contact your Congressional Representative, and/or his or her staff, and/or you write your Representative a constituent letter, please contact Bob Marcus by e-mail at marcus_associates@yahoo.com, or telephone at (505) 265-7571, or write c/o Marcus & Associates, P. O. Box 5631, Lighthouse Point, Florida 33074-5631, and let him know with whom you spoke, and how it went, so he can follow-up with your representative's Health Aide in Washington, D. C.
    
Marcus & Associates will be contacting District Point People who will be personally lobbying their representatives who are not yet co-sponsors of H. R. 1477.  If you are not currently a District Point Person, and you'd like to lobby your representative, in his or her district office, to co-sponsor H. R. 1477, educate them a bit about the benefits of Oriental medicine, and/or offer them, and/or their staff, an acupuncture treatment, please contact me at my e-mail address or postal address, and/or telephone me, so I can contact you, send you state and national materials on acupuncture and Oriental medicine, and facilitate a scheduled appointment between you and your representative.

In meeting with your Member of Congress, and/or his or her staff, you will generally find that they will be receptive regarding the Federal Acupuncture Coverage Act, particularly since the bill provides greater healthcare choices for constituents who are Medicare beneficiaries and/or federal employees.

In his “Dear Colleague Letter,” which Rep. Hinchey recently sent out to Members of the House, he stated, “Americans care deeply about the right to choose their health care providers and the ability to control their own medical decisions.  Acupuncture and other complementary treatments should be among the choices available to consumers.  The Federal Acupuncture Coverage Act would make that a reality for the 48 million Americans covered by Medicare and the Federal Employees Health Benefits plan.”

Making Contributions to the MediCare Campaign

To make real the vitally important goal of achieving passage of H. R. 1477, a contribution to the CAOMA MediCare Fund, or to Marcus & Associates of $25, $50, $100, $250, $500, $1,000 or any amount will be greatly appreciated.

In response to donations of $5,500 by any individual or organizations, Marcus & Associates must register with the Clerk of the House and the Clerk of the Senate as a lobbyist for those large contributors within a six-months.  

Contributions should be made payable to:

CAOMA MediCare Fund 1217 Washington Street Calistoga, CA 94515

Marcus & Associates 731 Westholme Avenue Los Angeles, California 90024