Health Freedom News out of New Mexico
Citizens for Health
We take a quick break from our series on Information and Healthcare to share with you news out of New Mexico. The National Health Freedom Coalition has alerted us to the recent passage of Health Freedom legislation by the New Mexico State Legislature. Like similar legislation in Minnesota, California, Rhode Island, Idaho, Louisiana and Okalahoma, New Mexico now protects a variety of independent healthcare practitioners from charges of practicing medicine without a license. The law contains disclosure provisions for protecting the public, which help ensure that the public is well informed. And the law contains disciplinary provisions to remedy violations. You can read the full text of the new law here.
The 2007 resolution from the New Mexico Legislature that set the wheels in motion says as follows:
New Mexico has a long history of cultural healers . . . and healing traditions, including plant medicines and foods, prayer, ceremony and song, and these traditions must be shared with the current generation and preserved by future generations;
[And in] New Mexico, there are also well-accepted complementary and alternative health care therapies that have historically been practiced by persons who are not licensed or regulated by the state, including naturopathy, homeopathy, meditation, mind-body healing practices, traditional eastern practices such as qi gong and ayurveda, nutrition and lifestyle change, energy therapies, aromatherapy, folk remedies, anthroposophy, herbal therapy and healing practices using heat, cold, water, light and sound; and . . .
[A] large number of New Mexicans are using cultural healers, and complementary and alternative health care therapies, food, food supplements, herbs and herbal remedies . . . [Emphasis ours.]
In keeping with our recent theme on Information, take note - whether you are a proponent of unlicensed healthcare or not - that within this language there is value placed on traditional local practices, and especially on the knowledge and information born from those practices. This is one way to preserve and share healthcare information at the grass roots level.