Petition for North Carolina House Bill 1303

February 22, 2006

The Citizens for Healthcare Freedom is a North Carolina grassroots organization dedicated to educating the public about health care issues.

Our mission is to improve the health and well-being of our North Carolina community by empowering individuals and families to make freer and more fully informed health care decisions.

CHF is currently following the nationwide trend by supporting an exciting, new Health Freedom Bill in North Carolina. In March 2005 we joined with a federation of organizations, a consortium of health care providers, and health conscious citizens in order to continue to promote a NC health freedom movement.

The federation penned and proposed a health freedom bill, and together with our House Bill Sponsor we are working hard to spread the word and get this bill to become law.

Currently, in North Carolina and other states without consumer protections, complementary and alternative health care practitioners can no longer freely practice natural healing -- such as naturopathy, acupuncture, herbology, aromatherapy, etc. -- or even educate the public about natural healing practices without being at an increasing risk of being accused of and charged for "practicing medicine without a license."

This bill would remedy this situation, allowing consumers to continue using alternative and complementary medicine alongside conventional medicine. First, this bill would narrow the scope of health care practices so that complementary and alternative medicine practices, which have been deemed inherently so safe that they don't require medical licensure, could continue to be practiced without a medical license. Secondly, the bill would allow these practitioners to continue to educate consumers about natural healing, such as nutrition, vitamins, herbs, etc., without being charged with practicing medicine without a medical license.

No matter how you depend on alternative and complementary medicine to keep healthy - whether it is seeing a homeopath or learning about vitamins and herbs from a naturopath - if you want to preserve these freedoms, please sign this petition now. And if you want to learn more about how you can become a part of this important initiative, please visit our website: www.CitizensforHealthcareFreedom.org.