The state Assembly Health Committee approved a bill to allow chiropractors to perform physicals on student athletes to certify them fit to play organized sports. The bill would actually require the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association (WIAA) to accept these examinations.

As much as we’re not fans of the WIAA, they do have a point that as a private organization it should be left to them to decide whose medical exams qualify.

Let’s also point out chiropractors are not medical doctors. They’re practitioners of an art, so-called “alternative medicine,” and not graduates of medical school. In fact, the bill would only require the state chiropractic examining board to set the standards and say which chiropractors could perform the examinations, There would be no actual medical oversight at all.

But we also think Republicans in the Assembly are thinking small. Why stop at chiropractors? Why not allow dentists, dermatologists, ophthalmologists, pharmacists, and even veterinarians perform the examinations, all of whom are closer to actual medical science than chiropractors?

Better yet, if this is supposedly about convenience for parents, we can just let midwives, acupuncturists, massage therapists, witch doctors, faith healers, and traveling salesmen selling snake oil do the examinations.

While we’re at it, let’s just allow lobbyists for the Wisconsin Chiropractor Association do the examinations.

In the meantime, we suggest Republican supporters of the bill get their heads examined.

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