MAINE

NHF Board Member, Pamela Gerry Announcement

on Maine Health Freedom Bill

by Pamela Gerry
April 1, 2007

 

The Maine legislature committee on Business, Research and Economic Development has scheduled a hearing for LD1516, an act to Permit Certain Healthcare Practices, for Friday, April 13 at 10 am.  If you are a practitioner in Maine, or you know clients in Maine who want to insure their right to continue to use natural, alternative, holistic modalities, please consider attending this hearing, either to speak, or to show support in numbers. Also, begin now to have everyone call their Reps and Senators to request that they support LD 1516. (Get that info here: http://janus.state.me.us/legis/legislature.htm )
These are the members of that committee that will do the initial review of the bill and decide whether it "ought to pass", and be sent to the body of the legislature, or it "ought not to pass" and be killed right there:

Business, Research and Economic Development

Senator Lynn Bromley (D-Cumberland), Chair

Senator Elizabeth M. Schneider (D-Penobscot)

Senator Jonathan T. E. Courtney (R-York)

Representative Nancy E. Smith (D-Monmouth), Chair

Representative Stephen R. Beaudette (D-Biddeford)

Representative Richard C. Cleary (D-Houlton)

Representative W. Bruce MacDonald (D-Boothbay)

Representative Mark Paul Samson (D-Auburn)

Representative Kimberly E. W. Silsby (D-Augusta)

Representative Christopher W. Rector (R-Thomaston)*

Representative Susan M. W. Austin (R-Gray)

Representative Michael Gary Beaulieu (R-Auburn)

Representative Kerri L. Prescott (R-Topsham)


This is what LD1516 says:

 

An Act To Permit Certain Health Care Practices

Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:

Sec. 1. 32 MRSA c. 137  is enacted to read:

CHAPTER 137

UNLICENSED HEALTH CARE PRACTICES

§ 17101.   Definitions

As used in this chapter, unless the context otherwise indicates, the following terms have the following meanings.

1.  Commissioner.   "Commissioner" means the Commissioner of Health and Human Services.

2.  Unlicensed health care client.   "Unlicensed health care client" means an individual who receives services from an unlicensed health care practitioner.

3.  Unlicensed health care practices.   "Unlicensed health care practices" means the broad domain of unlicensed healing methods and treatments, including, but not limited to:

A.  Acupressure;

B.  Alexander technique;

C.  Aromatherapy;

D.  Ayurveda;

E.  Cranial sacral therapy;

F.  Emotional freedom technique;

G.  Detoxification practices and therapies;

H.  Energetic healing;

I.  Rolfing;

J.  Gerson therapy and colostrum therapy;

K.  Therapeutic touch;

L.  Herbology or herbalism;

M.  Polarity therapy;

N.  Homeopathy;

O.  Nondiagnostic iridology;

P.  Body work;

Q.  Reiki;

R.  Mind-body healing practices;

S.  Hydrotherapy; and

T.  Qigong energy healing.

"Unlicensed health care practices" does not include surgery; x-ray radiation; prescribing; administering or dispensing legend drugs and controlled substances; practices that invade the human body by puncture of the skin; setting fractures; any practice included in the practice of dentistry; the manipulation or adjustment of articulations of joints or the spine, also known as chiropractic medicine; or the healing art of acupuncture.

4.  Unlicensed health care practitioner.   "Unlicensed health care practitioner" means a person who:

A.  Is not licensed by a health-related licensing board under this Title or by the commissioner or holds a license issued by a health-related licensing board under this Title or by the commissioner but does not profess to the public to be licensed or registered under this Title or by the commissioner when engaging in unlicensed health care practices;

B.  Has not had a license issued by a health-related licensing board under this Title or by the commissioner revoked or suspended without reinstatement;

C.  Is engaging in unlicensed health care practices; and

D.  Is providing unlicensed health care practices for remuneration or is professing to the public to be a practitioner of unlicensed health care practices.

§ 17102.   Application

This chapter does not apply to, control, prevent or restrict the practice, service or activity of lawfully marketing or distributing food products, including dietary supplements as defined in the federal Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994, 21 United States Code, Section 321(ff), educating customers about those products or explaining the uses of those products. An unlicensed health care practitioner may not provide a medical diagnosis.

§ 17103.   Jurisdiction

A health care practitioner licensed or registered by a health-related licensing board under this Title or by the commissioner who engages in unlicensed health care practices while practicing under the practitioner's license or registration is regulated by and is under the jurisdiction of the applicable health-related licensing board with regard to the unlicensed health care practices.

§ 17104.   Authorized to practice

Subject to the provisions of this chapter, a person in this State may practice as an unlicensed health care practitioner and receive remuneration for that person's services.

summary

This bill authorizes a person to practice as an unlicensed health care practitioner in this State.

 

Some solid reasons for supporting this bill:

This bill would legitimize by statutory law what is now a common-law right to practice.  It's also:

    1.  The morally correct thing to do as these interactions between nonlicensed healthcare providers and their customers are noncoercive, voluntary exchanges that hurt no one.

    2.  Many other States already recognize the rights of these types of individuals to engage in these healthy practices. (6 others already have law:)
 

2005 Louisiana Revised Statutes 20-37 VI-B

2003 Rhode Island Statute 23-75 - Unlicensed Health Care Practices

2001 California SB577 - California Complementary and Alternative Health Care Practitioners

1999 Minnesota Statute 146A - Minnesota Freedom of Access to Complementary and Alternative Health Care Practitioners

1994 - Oklahoma Statute 59-480 (Oklahoma Parameters for Jurisdiction of Physician Licensing Act) - Oklahoma Allopathic and Surgical Licensure and Supervision Act.

1976 - Idaho 54-1804 (Idaho Exemptions to the Medical Practice Act) - Unlicensed Practice. Penalties and Remedies Relating to Unlicensed Practice

 (Several have pending legislation.)

    3.  It promotes diversity in healthcare, experimentation, and progress that will lead to an increase in our knowledge.  It can greatly impact the cost of health care in Maine; these services are much less expensive than conventional modalities, and currently, are paid out of pocket by consumers.  There are innovative 'assurance' plans that now reward people for living a healthy lifestyle, and encourage the use of these disciplines because they save the 'assurance' companies money.  Living a healthy lifestyle will be relevant more than we think in the future, as, I learned last night while on a conference call about the lastest microchipping technologies, the grocery stores, who gain access to our food selections every time we use our 'courtesy card', (ie. Shaws- to get the lower prices), intend to sell info to the insurance companies, and if you  are a person with high blood pressure and you are regularly buying Hagen Daz ice cream, your premiums will go up. For related info go here:  http://www.abcnews.go.com/WNT/Business/story?id=2731799&page=1

And here- (MIT is working a lot in this area) http://www.nocards.org/AutoID/overview.shtml

    4.  It will end needless persecution of those the regular medical doctors see as "competition," thereby ending a State-sanctioned monopoly over anything even remotely connected with "medical" practice, a monopoly that should never have existed in the first place.  This bill still protects the medical monopoly, it just specifies a "safe harbor" that is clearly defined and that clearly does NOT infringe upon standard medical practice.  In doing so, it will prevent needless conflicts between the groups in the future, the waste of precious, already-stretched-too-thin judicial resources, and law-enforcement resources that can be put to better use elsewhere.

Thank you all for your help.
 

Pamela Gerry

 
 

 

 

 
 



 

 
 

 

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