Minutus

Very good summary of this can of worms Sheri. I agree it is protectionism, and exclusivity that does not help homeopathy as a whole at all.
After Minnesota succeeded in it's health freedom bill in 2000 I was on the founding board of the New Jersey Natural Health Coalition who split off from the NJ Homeopathic Assoc., being the group who wanted to change having to practice from under a rock. It was also for all other other natural practitioners.. licensed and unlicensed to be free to practice harmless/low risk alternatives. I believe some of the language in the NJ statutes was even against hands on healing.

We didn't succeed in the bill there after trying for years but in the process found the very same information about licensure. Massage therapists, chiropractors and certain holistic MD's were limited and unhappy in their licensure. Licensure assumes harm and therefore boxes you in, regulates, and ultimately does nothing to protect the consumer. It's only good to carve out a territory and gain insurance coverage (which is a paradigm that also must change - sick care coverage).

A better way is to have freedom to practice these no/low risk modalities and require disclosure of a practitioner's education and/or certification, whom carries insurance for what that is designed for. Give the freedom to the public to access these modalities by making it free too practice them across the board. Licensure is not the answer to this.

I wonder if the homeopathic college is in support of this bill. We don't want to see them behaving like Bastyr has been for naturopathy in this country.
Liz
--- In minutus@yahoogroups.com, "leilanae" wrote:

Totally agree with this analysis. Licensure is always about protectionism and control of practitioners
regardless of whether one is a healier or any other sort of contractor or practitioner of a trade/profession.
I have seen this being used to limit membership in the club in order to rig a higher price structure. It is
always the same.
It is also so good to hear others talk about history. If we don't learn from it, we are doomed to repeat it.
tanya
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Tanya,

Talk about a higher price structure !! Did you see the fees for this wonderful bill ?? It is $1000.00 to renew ,$500.00 for the initial testing application and I think $250.00 for a duplicate license. Pretty hefty for a non MD homeopath.

Sue
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All designed to be prohibitive.
Here in NYS for other types of licenses I pay
$!50.00/yr for a license that i never use
$100/ 2 yrs for a license that i do use
$!00/yr for a certification that deals only with a single material inspection
As an energy auditor they want me to pay $1500/yr + $350-450.00 per field
monitoring, several times/year. I don't pay this so don't get listed on their
contractor list.
The courses needed for all these certifications can run hundreds with the
required continuing ed courses. And all this for a field that has only a few
hundred people in it!!!!
These fees truly need to be seen as a work tax--a phrase that I don't hear
anyone else using, but we should all use it loudly.
tanya
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