What is wellness?  This is becoming a very important question.  It has been a trendy buzzword in recent years, with little formal organization of what actually constitutes wellness.  Every health care provider has put his or her spin on it, aiming at "optimizing" health.  With the health care reform package that is likely to make it into law, this concept of wellness will become very important.  This is because there will be a new emphasis on wellness due to insurance companies having an interest in actually keeping their clients healthy.  Why, you may ask?
In the past, health insurance companies could deny coverage to those who were sick and likely to cost them a lot of money.  Therefore, they could pick and choose who to cover, protecting their profits.  With the provisions that health insurance companies will no longer be allowed to deny coverage, they will be better served by actually trying to keep clients healthy and out of the doctor's office for expensive problems.  Prevention will be the new goal.  This sounds great, but there are some major problems.
The first and biggest problem is that health insurance companies have NO idea what true wellness is.  This is an industry that has been in the business of providing sick care for decades, not health care.  (Thanks fellow chiropractors and President Obama for that little bomb!)  Think about it, do you go to see your doctor when you are healthy?  Unless you are under routine chiropractic care, probably not.  You only go to see your doctor when you are sick or something is wrong.  Health insurance companies have had little interest in helping you become well.  They have always and will continue to provide the bare minimum for you to be functional.  Therefore, they have never truly provided (paid for) "wellness" care, and have no idea what is truly beneficial.
The second problem, and this is directly related to the first, is who will step in to define wellness?  You can already see the pharmaceutical companies jumping in to get their piece of the wellness pie.  Turn on the TV and you are sure to see ads for Lipitor, Vytorin, Crestor, Zetia, etc. which are supposed to "keep you healthy" by lowering your cholesterol.  Have erectile dysfunction, well take Viagra, Cialis, Levitra, etc. for better "quality of life."  High blood pressure, there's a pill for that.  Type 2 diabetes, there's a pill for that.  Don't forget the immunizations too.  What began as an honest effort to eradicate some terrible diseases such as polio has morphed into a never ending push to eliminate more and more illnesses that are less and less harmful, so that mom and dad won't have to miss work to stay at home with the kids when they are sick.  Just down the street from my practice is an "Immunization Wellness Clinic".  What an oxymoron! 
The third problem is that professions that do and always have emphasized a true concept of wellness simply can't compete with the deep pockets of the pharmaceutical companies in making this push to define wellness.  The pharmaceutical companies have what seems like a never ending loop (we health care professionals might call it a pathological positive feedback loop) set up with the government in that they donate tons of money to politicians, have laws written to make drugs "more readily available, " which helps them make more money, which the can donate to.....and on and on.  Of course they will have influence to define wellness, almost solely by themselves, ensuring more elective "lifestyle" or "wellness" or "preventative" drugs are sold!
The crux of the problem is this...  if you are taking a pill or getting an immunization to prevent a condition for which you would have to take a pill...aren't you missing the boat somewhere?  How is taking something to avoid having to take something better?  Wouldn't you be better served if your body could do what it was designed to do in the first place?  Be healthy?  Fight disease?  This would surely save insurance companies money.  In fact, many research papers have shown that regular chiropractic care does just that! 
So what is wellness.  Is it only absence of disease, or is it optimal physical and mental health?  I believe that simple absence of disease, or what I call "bare minimum wellness" is what  most people and insurance companies will view as "wellness".  This is something that you could certainly take a pill for!  It's easy to avoid "disease" by getting immunized and taking medication.  However, wouldn't it be much better to not have to take a pill in the first place?  If you were to achieve optimal physical and mental health, which we as healthcare professionals should be able to help you do, wouldn't that be ideal?  If there is to be an emphasis on "wellness", don't be fooled into accepting anything less. 
Chiropractic has always stood at the forefront of the wellness movement.  Our philosophy is based on allowing the body to do what it was designed to do (keep itself healthy, in a nutshell) by removing interference to natural processes.  In the current debate, we have more to say about healthy lifestyles than any other healthcare profession, and still seem to have been pushed aside.  This is not acceptable.  I propose that we fight.  Fight for our rightful place at the table of the future of healthcare.  Fight for our definition of true wellness.  Most importantly, fight for the health of our patients.