Health Freedom Initiatives

May 30, 2000
Minnesota's Health Care Freedom Bill Signed into Law
In a world looking for freedom of access to alternative health care, Minnesota has found an answer. On May 11th, Governor Jesse Ventura signed the Complementary and Alternative Health Care Freedom of Access bill into law. With that signing, Minnesota protected freedom of access to health care as a basic freedom that people enjoy, along with freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Few choices are so fundamental and important as is the choice of how we shall recover from illness or improve health.

Minnesota's Freedom Solution
To assure consumer access to as many practitioners as possible, the state of Minnesota has set up an office to provide government oversight to unlicensed practitioners. In turn, the practitioners practicing under the new statute will be exempt from criminal charges of practice of medicine without a license. The office will oversee those who are practicing "the broad domain of complementary and alternative healing methods and treatments." Naturopathy, homeopathy and herbalism are just a few of the therapies listed in the statute as examples of practices that the new chapter of law deals with. A set of 24 rules of ethical conduct is given for the new office to oversee. The office will receive consumer complaints, investigate them, and enforce the ethical rules. The ethical rules include prohibitions against fraud, false or misleading advertising, sexual contact with a client, and inability to practice "with reasonable safety … to the client." The rules of conduct are clearly not intended to allow suppression of therapies on the grounds that they are new or different from conventional practice. "The fact that a …practice may be a less customary approach to health care shall not constitute the basis of a disciplinary action per se," the new law states. The law took effect July 1, 2000.

Practitioners Need To Comply with MN Statute 146A
Compliance packets are available - $35
Includes a 10-minute question-and-answer period with members of the MNHC to answer questions that have arisen from studying the packet.

Client Bill of Rights
All unlicensed complementary and alternative health care practitioners shall provide to each client a written copy of the client bill of rights (MN Statute 146A.11 subd1-2).