Question: Are chiropractic benefits covered under the essential benefits plan of the affordable care act.

Answer: We don’t know for sure, but probably some chiropractic benefits will be included in California’s version of the essential benefit plan. In mid-December 2011 HHS announced that it was passing the responsibility for defining essential benefits to the states. HHS guidance says states can define their own set of essential benefits by using an existing major health benefit plan in the state as a benchmark. California benchmarks would include one of the three largest federal employee health benefit plans by enrollment, one of the three largest state employee health benefit plans by enrollment, one of the three largest small business plans by enrollment, and the largest HMO plan offered in the state’s commercial market by enrollment. All of these benchmark plans contain some chiropractic benefits.