Take Action
This page is dedicated to current legislation regarding naturopathic medicine and other related interests both within Pennsylvania and on the national level.
*As a note, personal letters have a great impact on legislators. We encourage you to share your own experience, tell your own story.
State Legislation: Support Licensing of Naturopathic Doctors
Write your legislator. Tell them that you support HB 1717. We need your help to make sure that naturopathic medicine is an option available when it comes to YOUR health care. It's well known that prevention can save everyone money and that natural therapies make a difference in the lives of people who choose to use them. Share your experience with naturopathic medicine. Personal stories are the single most powerful tool in the legislative efforts.
Click here to find your local legislators.
Support HB 1717 to License Naturopathic Doctors in PA
Write Your State Representative Today!
All Pennsylvanians deserve access to safe, responsible, qualified healthcare providers. Let your legislators know that you feel it is important to license naturopathic physicians this year! We will need you to sign and ask as many Pennsylvanians as you know to do so as well. There is a public hearing Thursday January 19 in the licensure committee on this bill. Thanks in advance for your help!
Take Action Now!
* Currently, we are asking people to write a personal letter to their local representative and to please send a copy of the letter to our Legislative Chair, who is gathering the letters to present to the House Professional Licensing Committee.
Letters should be sent to:
Heidi Weinhold, ND 205 E. McMurray Rd McMurray, PA 15317
National: Support Naturopathic Medicine in Federal Legislation
The Endocrine Disruption Prevention Act (S 2828 and HR 4190) would authorize the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences to conduct endocrine disruption research in order to develop assays that will identify endocrine disrupting chemicals and determine their safety. The program will rely on a panel of scientific experts, free of conflict of interest, to evaluate the findings and determine the level of concern. This information will be passed on to regulatory agencies (EPA, FDA, CPSC, OSHA, and the Dept. of Agriculture) who must propose a course of action in response to the findings.
Should this bill become law, the following protocols would be created for the purpose of developing reliable and reproducible methods to identify chemicals that can disrupt the human endocrine system:
- address the full range of possible health outcomes (including reproductive, behavioral, intellectual, metabolic, and endocrine disorders);
- be sensitive enough to detect effects at exposure levels relevant to human exposure (and not rely on the assumption that a lower dose produces less effect);
- consider the effects of exposure to multiple chemicals
Please write your Senators and Congressman today and ask them to consponsor this legislation.
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What is an Integrative Health Care Practitioner?
Write Secretary Selbelius Today!
Title 5 of the new health care Act is focused on expanding the workforce to meet the growing need for quality providers. Included in this section are multiple references to complementary and alternative medicine providers and a new, as of yet undefined term, integrative health care practitioner. AANP has lobbied extensively over the years for Congress to define to include the broad array of qualified, licensed providers who treat the person and not just the disease. Regulations to implement the law are currently being written by the Department of Health and Human Services, with significant input from the Institute of Medicine and the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. Please take a moment to write Secretary Sebelius. It is vital that NDs in licensed states, should they wish, have the opportunity to participate in whatever programs are created - whatever that looks like at the end of the day.
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America Needs Naturopathic Medicine
Share Your Story with President Obama
The new health care reform law includes the creation of many councils and advisory groups who will be tasked with creating policy and programs. AANP has nominated naturopathic physician Dr. Tara Levy to serve on one of these advisory groups. Having an ND participate in the design of health and wellness policy will significantly change the future of health care in this country for generations to come. Please let President Obama know how naturopathic medicine has changed your life, and ask him to name Dr. Levy to the "National Prevention, Health Promotion, and Public Health Council Advisory Board."
Your ND, like Dr. Levy, works every day to transform lives. It's time they had a say in transforming our health care system.
Take Action Now!
