OT Colorado Health Freedom Act Killed!

[Sheri Nakken]

They are happy when freedom is qwashed.
Sheri

from someone who got this from quackwatch
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Quackwatch reporting...............

Hi all,

I'm happy to report that the Health Committee of the Colorado Senate
killed HB1170 yesterday afternoon. The vote was 5-2. If it wasn't
for protocol, it would have been 6-1.

Opposing testimony was taken from me, for NCAHF, and Mark Johnson,
MD, who was representing the Colorado Medical Society in addition to
himself (he is the health department director for the state's largest
county). I testified that the bill would leave health consumers
helpless against "alternative practitioners" who were practicing
substandard medicine since there are no discernible standards for
alts. I also stressed that the bill overthrows an entire century of
professional regulation with little or no public discussion of such a
radical change ("stealth bill"). Dr Johnson stunned the committee
with a long list of medical things that alts would be permitted to
do, with little or no training to do them, if the bill went through.
He also scored big with a statement about the value of the last 150
years of experience insisting on professional integrity and
scientific competence.

The two witnesses favoring the bill (including the national leader of
the Health Freedom Movement, who flew in from Wash DC to testify)
made little impact at all, stressing the need for the "simple
disclosure" that this bill was originally designed to do
(supposedly). The coup de gras was delivered by the Administrator
for the Department of Regulatory Agencies who broke that department's
long-standing silence on the bill and spoke against it.

I had been lobbying the Senate sponsor of the bill for some time in
anticipation of the House passing it (which it did last week). More
significantly, CMS also had been lobbying him. After the public
testimony, he moved to amend out the stealth features of the bill,
which passed unanimously. There was some fear about what might
happen to the bill if it went back to the House in that form -- they
might sneak those provisions back in the conference committee -- so
the senators decided to play it safe and kill the bill outright.
There was no sentiment expressed by any senator in favor of the bill;
there was no doctor-bashing as there was over in the House. One of
the bill's co-sponsors (who was also chairman of the committee) even
declared that the bill was now nothing like it was when he signed on
to it, and he was not amused by that.

The prime sponsor couldn't be seen as voting against the bill, so he
was the second vote for it when the tally was taken. He approached
me after the meeting to thank me, quite pleased at the outcome!

Thanks to one and all for your help and support with this. Now it's
on to working to keep the naturopaths from getting licenses to
practice quackery. That will be next year's challenge, and a big one
it will be.

Best regards,
Larry & Linda
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Sheri Nakken, R.N., MA, Hahnemannian Homeopath
Vaccination Information & Choice Network, Nevada City CA & Wales UK
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Sheri Nakken, R.N., MA, Hahnemannian Homeopath
Well Within & Earth Mysteries & Sacred Site Tours (worldwide)
Vaccination Information & Choice Network
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