| National Health Freedom Coalition NHFC sent communication to the Obama Administration at Change.Gov, emphasizing the importance of health freedom considerations when creating health care policy. If you would like to send comments to the health care team during this transition time, see below for links. Here is the message sent by NHFC: My name is Diane Miller and I am an attorney and Director of Law and Public Policy for National Health Freedom Coalition (NHFC) (www.nationalhealthfreedom.org). ; NHFC annually hosts the United States Health Freedom Assembly, including 45 Voting Member Organizations working to protect health freedom and working to build consensus and solutions for health care. We have endorsed the International Declaration of Health Freedom passed in 2006 by the World Health Freedom Assembly (Read Here). Not only do Americans need access to conventional medical health care without economic barriers, but they need access to whatever type of health care they want, whether it is conventionally medical, or natural and holistic; whether it is preventive or critical care, whether it is from licensed conventional providers, or from practitioners of non-invasive approaches within the community that should not require occupational licensure. We need all hands on deck. One size does not fit all. Health is a personal journey and Americans need their healing preferences and journey protected. Americans need the economic barriers to conventional care removed, and they need the barriers of access to natural remedies removed and natural healing protected. NHFC trains leaders on how to be politically active and be advocates for change. There are three areas that health freedom leaders are diligently working on in the health freedom movement for change, State, Federal, and International. For example: 1) State law – a.) The passage of safe harbor exemption laws that protect the right of Americans to access non-medical health care practitioners who are practicing safely in the public domain without occupational licensing, such as natural, complementary, or alternative forms of healing, homeopathy, herbalism, massage and bodywork, and naturopathy, to enable these practitioners to continue to practice without being criminally charged for practicing medicine without a license, (six states already have passed and 22 more states have introduced these measures) and b.) passage of new laws that allow medical doctors to provide holistic and natural health care solutions without being disciplined or losing their license for going outside of prevailing conventional care (23 states have passed these laws and one state passed a law for all licensed professionals to use complementary and alternative health care. 2) Federal law – Foods are not Drugs. Introduction of bills that take back the rights of people to make truthful health claims for foods and dietary supplements that are generally regarded as safe, without that food or dietary supplement automatically legally turning into a drug by definition, thus being the foundation of criminal charges of drug use (the fact that a food legally turns into a drug when used for prevention and cure of disease because of the definition of drug based on intent of use, is outmoded and extremely detrimental to access to nutrients by the American public); and 3) International Regulations and Guidelines - Passage of Congressional directives to US Employees: Americans who represent us at international forums should represent US law and the interests of the people, rather than representing the agendas of the various agencies that employ them (The FDA and US delegates have systematically indicated approval of maximum upper limits on vitamins and minerals for global trade guidelines while representing the US in global forums such as the United Nations Codex Alimentarius, in direct opposition to the Proxmire bill and the 1994 Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act establishing no upper limits on vitamins and minerals). Further Comment: Conventional medical care with drugs and surgery has become the main government-endorsed option for health care in our country because of conventional state occupation laws and federal substance and drug law. All other options, which are often economically sounder and that promote prevention and the vital force of the human body, have been systematically outlawed over the years, lea ving us with a “conventional medical drug based monopoly enforced by governments”. Healers and practitioners that choose not to be medical professionals under state licensing laws can be charged criminally in most states for practicing medicine without a license. State licensed medical doctors and professionals cannot wander outside of their conventional accepted and prevailing standards of care or they are vulnerable to losing their licenses, even though they have secured patient informed consent and no harm has been caused. Both licensed and unlicensed practitioners can be charged under federal law for using unapproved drugs if they use a natural substance (even water) for the prevention and cure of a disease, because the legal definition of drug is based on “intent of use of a substance” rather than whether something is a natural, generally regarded as safe, substance or whether it is a toxic substance. If we continue to allow the status quo, where licensed Physicians are blocked from providing natural therapies, and unlicensed natural healers are criminally charged for practicing medicine without a license, and all practitioners are prohibited from using natural substances for prevention and cure of disease, then for sure we have lost the greatest freedom of all – the freedom to survive on our own terms. Diane M. Miller J.D. We encourage you to contact the health care transition team with your comments. The new administration needs to hear the desire for the American people to have health freedom! Please contact Change.Gov at http://change.gov/page/s/yourvision with your comments.
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