Chronic pain is the number one complaint heard by physicians across our nation. From low back to the pain of cancer, from the highly publicised fibromyalgia to chronic fatigue syndrome, and from the common headache to bursitis...pain is something all Americans can relate to. However, in the highly regulated world of healthcare, are American's getting their collective monies worth of attention and care for their pain complaints. The authors feel the answer is generally, "NO". How many of us have said, "Nobody takes my pain seriously" or "They say I shouldn't be hurting and that it's all in my head." How often are patients sent off to see psychologists or psychiatrists when physicians hit the wall and are unable to treat a patient's pain? What the authors want you to know is that there is a dirty little secret inside the healthcare system that, through ignorance, arrogance, and greed, perpetrates tremendous injustice upon individuals suffering with chronic pain. And, like the dirty little secret, some doctors and insurance companies work hard to sweep patients with chronic pain under the rug. The problem has nothing to do with the latest approaches to diagnosis and treatment. It has nothing to do with discovering a way to ease human suffering and restore quality of life. Modern medicine already knows how to do that. Rather it has to do with something far more basic: compassion and the true desire to help. There are forces at work which, under the guise of healthcare, actively undermine efforts to help people with pain. This book exposes those secrets and arms the reader with information needed to manoeuvre through the healthcare minefields -- so they can get the help they deserve.