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November 15, 2011
Pennsylvania: On November 17th, Pennsylvania House of Representatives is holding a hearing on H.B. 1717, a monopolistic Naturopathic Physician Practice Act mandating licensure of natural health practices with no exemptions for unlicensed traditional naturopaths or complementary and alternative health care practitioners. It will be heard in the Committee on Professional Licensure.
What you can do: Come to the hearing, call your own Assembly Member and the Committee Members listed below, and Oppose H.B. 1717. Contact legislators by phone, email, or personal letter. Let them know you oppose the bill. What the Bill Does H.B. 1717 would criminalize practicing anything within the proposed definition of “naturopathic medicine”, regardless of whether it poses a risk of harm to the public. The definition is so broad that it includes many natural therapies such as “…hydrotherapy, topical medicines, foods, food extracts, vitamins, amino acids, minerals, enzymes, dietary supplements, …, homeopathic remedies and plant substances…”. Click here to see the language of H.B. 1717 H.B. 1717 would criminalize and medicalize the common terms “naturopathy” and “naturopath” and take them out of the public domain and relegate them to a small special group that obtained a special education. Thousands of citizens use the term “naturopath” and practice varying forms of “naturopathic health care” and “naturopathic services” including grandmothers providing “chicken soup” to others. “Naturopathy”, “naturopathic health care” and “naturopathic services” are not the same as “naturopathic medicine” and should not require medical education. Coming to the Hearing: Where and When the Bill will be heard: H.B. 1717 is scheduled to be heard in a public hearing on November 17, 2011. The time is 9:30A.M. in Room 60 of the East Wing of the State Capitol Building. People have signed up to testify already and large numbers in the audience are necessary to show support. We will need as many people present as possible to defeat this bill. Contacting Legislators 1. Distribute Attached One Page Call to Action: Please forward this email to your customers, friends, and family to sign the one-page letter (available for download by clicking here), and send by fax to all the members of the committee listed below. Telephone calls, emails or faxes are extremely important even if you plan to attend the committee hearing. Not everyone will speak during committee so it's important to tell them beforehand. 2. Contact Pennsylvania Committee on Professional Licensure. Call the phone numbers listed below to leave a message with each member of the Professional Licensure Committee or e-mail or fax the attached form letter to the committee. Call from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and from 8 a.m. to adjournment on Saturdays.
3. Contact Individual Assembly Members. If you write or e-mail, begin your communication with Dear Representative ____________; Include bill number for example: RE: Oppose H.B. 1717. Please take the time to write a personal note on your letter as this will have a greater impact with the legislators. Tell them about your rights as a consumer in Pennsylvania to a free and educated choice in health care providers. Also tell them that you depend on alternative and complementary care for you and your family. Build a relationship with your personal Representative and Senator. Make an appointment, call them, write them and email them, and start building a strong relationship with them. For more information regarding what you can do, contact Ruth Hoskins at relaxwithruth@gmail.com. To send an email to the members whose email addresses are not listed, go to http://www.legis.state.pa.us. Go to the home page for the House, and click on ‘members’. Click on the member’s name and send an email through ‘Contact me’. Share you contact information to get future alerts: Please contact Ruth Hoskins and give her your contact information so you can stay updated concerning the progress of the bill. Email: relaxwithruth@gmail.com. SUPPORT Wisconsin: Wisconsin Consumer Choice and Wellness Act, S.B 280, needs your immediate help to contact the Committee members and encourage them to hear the bill. S. B. 280 protects consumer access to complementarhy and alternative health care options and was referred to the Wisconsin Senate Committee on Health. Now we need to let our voices be heard to pass this great health freedom bill! What the Bill Does: S.B. 280 protects consumer access to complementary and alternative health care practitioners including herbalists, naturopaths, nutritional consultants, homeopaths, and many other natural health and complementary health practitioners. It protects the right of practitioners to provide complementary and alternative health care services and returns freedom of speech and choice of wellness lifestyle to the individual. Click here to see the language of the proposed Wisconsin health freedom bill. What you can do: Contact legislators and let them know you support S.B. 280! (See how to do that below.) WE CAN DO THIS TOGETHER! A concerted effort will get this accomplished. Contacting Legislators 1. Distribute Attached One Page Call to Action: Please forward this email to your customers, friends, and family to sign the one-page letter (available by clicking here for download) and send by fax to all the members of the committee listed below and to your own legislator. If you don’t know your personal legislators’ names, you can locate them by going to http://legis.wisconsin.gov/w3asp/waml/waml.aspx and entering your address and click on ‘search’ to find a legislator. Those without Internet access can call their board of elections, City or Township Clerk locally or their County Clerks office, or go to the public library. Telephone calls, emails or faxes are extremely important at this time. 2. Contact Wisconsin Senate Committee on Health Members. Call the phone numbers listed below to leave a message with each member of the Senate Committee on Health or e-mail or fax the attached form letter to the committee. Call, Monday through Fridays, from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. The message: “I support S.B. 280 – it protects my access to natural health care practitioners and they are very important to my health care choice options. Give us feedback after the call. This will help us to know where we stand with each legislator. After you speak with your legislator, please let us know how your conversation went, and if they are willing to make a commitment to the bill. Please e-mail WIHFC at synchaa@gmail.com with this information. 3. Contacting Individual Legislators If you write or e-mail, begin your communication with Dear Senator (or Representative) ____________; Include bill number for example: RE: Support S.B. 280. Please take the time to write a personal note on your letter as this will have a greater impact with the legislators. Tell them about your rights as a consumer in Wisconsin to a free and educated choice in health care providers. Also tell them that you depend on alternative and complementary care for you and your family. Build a relationship with your personal Representative and Senator. Make an appointment, call them, write them and email them, and start building a strong relationship with them. Request materials from Wisconsin Health Freedom Coalition if you want to use leave-behind information that can help you when speaking with legislators regarding our bill. To download information about Wisconsin Health Freedom Coalition please go to our website http://wihfc.com/index.html or contact us at synchaa@gmail.com. Come to a Future Hearing Hearing on the Bill: S.B. 280 was introduced on November 4, 2011 and was referred to the Senate Committee on Health. We are hopeful that we can display enough support that S.B. 280 will get a hearing in the Senate during session. When S.B. 280 gets a hearing we will need people to testify, as well as have a large crowd in attendance. If you want to testify, let us know so we can help you prepare your testimony. The number of people at the hearing will most definitely have an impact on the legislators and can affect how they will vote. This is why it is so important that you attend these hearings. Keeping Updated Please forward or send this to everyone you know who cares about Health Freedom. Check our website for more information and updates: http://wihfc.com/ Share your contact information to get future alerts: We need to be able to let you know when and where hearings and other meetings will be held. Please go to the Wisconsin Health Freedom Coalition website at http://wihfc.com/index.html and register for their newsletter. THANK YOU from the Wisconsin Health Freedom Coalition leaders: Syncha Maniscalco and Susan Klingeisen **************** These are the Senators on the Wisconsin Senate Committee on Health: Sen. Leah Vukmir; Room 131 South, State Capitol, P.O. Box 7882, Madison, WI 53707-7882; Phone: (608) 266-2512; Fax: (608) 267-0367; Sen.Vukmir@legis.wisconsin.gov Sen. Pam Galloway; Room 409 South, State Capitol, P.O. Box 7882, Madison, WI 53707-7882; Phone: (608) 266-2502; Fax: (608) 267-9027; Sen.Galloway@legis.wisconsin.gov Sen. Terry Moulton; Room 306 South, State Capitol, P.O. Box 7882, Madison, WI 53707-7882; Phone: (608) 266-7511; Fax: (608) 282-3563; Sen.Moulton@legis.wisconsin.gov Sen. Jon Erpenbach; Room 104 South, State Capitol, P.O. Box 7882, Madison, WI, 57303-7882; Phone: (608) 266-6670 Or (888) 549-0027; Fax: (608) 266-2508; Sen.Erpenbach@legis.wisconsin.gov Sen. Tim Carpenter; Room 310 South, State Capitol, P.O. Box 7882, Madison, WI 53707-7882; Phone: (608) 266-8535 Or (800) 249-8173; Fax: (608) 282-3543; Sen.Carpenter@legis.wisconsin.gov Click here to see a video of a November grassroots legislative breakfast with speakers
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