Newsletters > Winter 1997 > Health Department Study Recommends Freedom of Access to Natural Health Care, by Jerri Johnson, Homeopath

In 1997, the Minnesota Legislature directed the Department of Health to conduct a study on the scope of Complementary/Alternative Medicine (CAM) in Minnesota. With the assistance of an Advisory Committee, of which Coalition member Jerri Johnson is a member, this group has been meeting monthly to discuss issues of importance to natural health care in Minnesota.

Staff members at the Department of Health and the majority of the Advisory Committee are fully aware of the problems that natural health care practitioners face legally; that licensed practitioners who use alternative methods are often sanctioned for practicing outside of standard care, and that unlicensed practitioners are sanctioned for "practicing medicine without a license." The group is working to devise solutions to this and other problems, and will be issuing a report to the Legislature in January, along with recommendations.

Some of the Guiding Principles articulated in the report include:

• Consumers should have the broadest access possible to CAM. Regulation should interfere an; little as possible with the availability to consumers of the wick, variety of complementary, alternative, anti allopathic providers.
• No regulation shall he imposed upon any occupation unless required for the safety and well-being of the citizens of the state.
• There is a need for legislation to allow licensed and unlicensed providers of complementary medicine to practice without fear of criminal or administrative prosecution from existing regulatory authorities.

Recommendations include:

• Freedom of practice legislation which allows providers to continue service as long as the service is not shown to he dangerous or harmful, should be considered as a possible alternative to licensure or registration when appropriate. This may require making some changes in the Medical Practices Act or other licensure laws.

The Department of Health will be requesting from the Legislature additional authorization to continue the study of these complex issues and arrive at specific recommendations regarding freedom of practice and regulation.

We at the Minnesota Natural Health Coalition have a vision for health care in Minnesota: that Natural Health Care and Allopathic Health Care stand side by side as the two great systems of medicine; that consumers have the option at any time to choose the kind of health care services that they desire; and that practitioners have the right to offer any safe health care services that they deem to be beneficial and that they are trained to perform.

We are proud that our Health Department and Legislators are listening to consumers and natural health practitioners and courageously addressing these difficult issues. Minnesota may very well be the model for the rest of the nation in reestablishing freedom for natural health care.

If you have room in a newsletter, you may want to include this wonderful quote by Benjamin Rush, M.D., one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and framers of the Constitution: "the Constitution of this Republic should make special provision for Medical Freedom as well as Religious Freedom...To restrict the art of healing to one class of men and deny equal privileges to others will constitute the bastille (prison) of medical Science. All such laws are unAmerican and despotic."

But don't make it too crowded!