Act Today To Keep Alternative Healthcare Accessible In Massachusetts

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Keep Reiki, qigong, Ayurveda, herbalism, Jin Shin Jyutsu, energy medicine and all alternative health treatments readily available in Massachusetts! Please let the State House know today that complementary healthcare is important to you!

The hearing for H.2343/S.1380, An Act Providing for Consumer Access to and the Right to Practice Complementary and Alternative Health Care Services, our original safe harbor bill to protect unlicensed holistic practitioners, was announced for Friday, Oct 15 at 10am by the Joint Committee on Public Health.

We need your help now to pass this safe harbor bill – the bill that will protect holistic health practitioners from unnecessary licensing.

Testimony is needed this week — both written and virtual — to pass this legislation and protect your access to the same quality and quantity of alternative health care you enjoy today! You must register by Wednesday, October 13 at 5pm if you wish to testify in-person at the virtual hearing.

If you submitted testimony 2 years ago and wish to resubmit that testimony, email carol@spiritofchange.org for a copy of your previous testimony so you can resubmit that to the committee.

This testimony call is for a different bill than requested earlier this week — S.221 and H.350, a.k.a. the “bodyworker bill.” This bill is for permanent safe harbor for unlicensed holistic practitioners in the state. We need this now!

You can also send an auto-generated testimony letter to the committee members at this link.

Here are the State House instructions for providing testimony on this hearing. Please follow them carefully. 

The Joint Committee on Public Health will conduct a virtual public hearing on Friday, October 15, 2021 beginning at 10:00 a.m. on bills relating to Professional Licensure and Scope of Practice; and Agencies. You may testify yourself or you may testify with likeminded individuals as part of a panel.

Individuals testifying should limit their remarks to 3 minutes. All panels should limit their testimony to a total of 6 minutes.

Persons who wish to testify, submit written testimony, or both, may sign up and/or submit written testimony by completing this form: https://forms.gle/7Q79AZKzSCmfoPMP9

Persons who do not have a Google account or do not wish to use the Google form can submit testimony and/or sign up to testify by emailing: JointCommittee.PublicHealth@malegislature.gov

For those who have signed up to testify, Legislative Information Services will provide a link to join the public hearing. Persons planning to testify must sign up no later than 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday, October 13, 2021.  Those who plan to submit only written testimony may do so before or after the sign up deadline.

Those who do not plan to testify but want to watch the public hearing may view the live stream under the Hearings & Events section of the legislative website.

If you have any questions, you may email Kathleen.Hornby@mahouse.gov and Brian.Rosman@masenate.gov.

You do not have to be a resident of Massachusetts to testify. Thank you for your help in keeping alternative healthcare abundant and available in Massachusetts!

Carol Bedrosian is a board member of Health Freedom Action Massachusetts and the publisher of Spirit of Change.