NHFC’s Director, Diane Miller JD,
Presents Legislative Health Freedom Update at Expo

STATE UPDATE: States are constantly making laws that impact our health freedoms, for the better or for the worse! States regulate practitioners, and thus impact whether your holistic health practitioner has the freedom to practice, and the freedom to advocate what he or she thinks is best for you.

• Often, state laws make holistic health care illegal and many natural health practitioners are at risk!

All states have medical statutes that regulate the practice of medical doctors. These statutes have a standard of care that licensees must adhere to, or risk losing their license. As a result, many doctors who would like to recommend or utilize alternative methods of healing choose not to, because of the potential consequences. Others courageously choose to go ahead and use practices outside of the usual standard of care for medical doctors, but at great risk, and many have in fact lost their licenses.

The same laws that regulate doctors also dictate that no one but doctors may “practice medicine,” unless the laws give exemptions, for example to nurses or chiropractors. And the definition of what constitutes “practicing medicine” is so broad that anyone who helps someone get well, or even prevent illness, could be guilty of “practice of medicine without a license.” As a result, thousands of practitioners of safe, natural forms of health care such as homeopathy, herbalism, traditional naturopathy, and energy healing, could be prosecuted.

Additional licensing laws cause similar problems. For example, laws that license dietitians typically say that no one may practice dietetics without a license. As a result, holistic practitioners that give nutritional recommendations in states with dietitian licensing could be prosecuted for practicing dietetics without a license. And laws that license naturopathic doctors typically prohibit other practitioners from practicing naturopathy or naturopathic medicine, which is generally defined very broadly, or using the term “naturopath” unless you are a licensed doctor.

NHFC’s sister organization, National Health Freedom Action (NHFA), works to defeat improper licensing bills or provide proper exemption amendments to such bills to protect the independent practitioners, practicing in the public domain.

National Health Freedom Coalition (NHFC) believes that people should have a right to practice their vocation, and the state should not interfere, unless that vocation causes an imminent risk of harm. NHFC believes that licensure, which allows only a particular group of people with a particular education the right to practice, should not be implemented for vocations like homeopathy, herbalism, energy healing, and traditional naturopathy.

NHFA is lobbying in many states to pass “Safe Harbor” health freedom laws. These laws give natural health practitioners exemption from licensure laws and the right to practice, provided that they comply with certain requirements such as not doing harmful or invasive practices, and giving disclosure of their education. Diane Miller, JD, Director of Law and Public Policy for NHFA and NHFC, is an active educator and architect of many new laws to protect health freedoms and works with many states in their legislative endeavors. Eight states now have some form of safe harbor law, and about twenty more states have introduced such legislation into their legislature.

To read NHFA’s current summary of legislative action, state by state, click here.

To view Diane Miller’s Power Point presentation on legislation that affects health freedom, including state legislation impacting practitioners’ freedom to practice, and federal legislation impacting food, dietary supplements, and devices, click here.