• Osteopathy's tenets state that a person's body should be treated as a unit: mind, body, and soul.doctor visiting image by TEMISTOCLE LUCARELLI from Fotolia.com
  
  According to the American Osteopathic Association (AOA), Doctors of Osteopathic Medicine (DOs) should regard medical care as the treatment of the "whole person." DOs practice a method of medicine that focuses on the "inter-relationship between the body's nerves, muscles, bones and organs." The AOA claims that osteopathy is one of the fastest-growing fields in medicine and predicts that more than 100,000 doctors nationwide will be DOs by 2020. Because of this growth, DOs will be at the forefront of dealing with medical issues and national health-care policies for years to come.
  
  

Medicare Reform

• The AOA believes its biggest health policy priority is dealing with Medicare reform. The AOA states that "serious discrepancies exist between the cost of providing medical services and the current government method for reimbursing physicians for these services." The AOA touts the fact that 60 percent of DOs work as primary care providers and that many of these doctors work in low-income and rural communities. The issue of Medicare reform looms large for many DOs who rely on government reimbursements to practice medicine.
  
  

Medical Malpractice

• In addition, the AOA bemoans the fact that doctors are being forced to "cut services" to pay for "skyrocketing (insurance) premiums". Along with Medicare reform, dealing with the issue of malpractice insurance has become a top issue for many DOs. The AOA states that because doctors feel obligated to pay such high premiums to guard against malpractice lawsuits, patients "lose access to affordable health coverage."
  
  

Health Insurance

• The AOA also considers the increasing number of uninsured patients in the United States a serious problem. On its website, the AOA points out that many large employers now shift health care costs to their employees and that many smaller business must drop coverage altogether. At the same time, low-income individuals and the elderly have lost services from government programs like Medicaid. The AOA says it is tracking several states that have recently been debating universal health care measures in their legislatures, and the organization informs its members of these bills.