Great news! On June 11, Maine passed into law LD 364, “An Act to Establish the Right To Practice Complementary and Alternative Health Care Act”.  The new law will protect Maine citizen’s access to their many wonderful practitioners such as homeopaths, herbalists, traditional naturopaths, nutritional consultants, and many more, who are providing complementary and alternative health care.  The bill was introduced by Senator Miramant on January 24, 2019 and will go into effect in October 2019.

Click Here to access the bill language.

LD 364 came forth from a dedicated team that is now called Safe Harbor Maine.  Their effort began with another project, Maine Homeopathic Initiatives (MHI), which was to be the first low-cost homeopathic wellness center in Maine.  But soon they realized that a Safe Harbor Licensing Exemption bill for all complementary and alternative health care practitioners was necessary in Maine and so they took on the Safe Harbor project with NHFA attorneys Diane Miller and Anne Gillum.

National Health Freedom Action is completely delighted and impressed by the team’s commitment to protect access to Maine’s practitioners who practice in the public domain.  We would like to especially thank Sarah Thompson, board member, MHI, Homeopath, and Attunement practitioner, Kelly Callahan CCH, RShom(NA), Homeopath, Nancy Frederick CCH, RShom(NA), Homeopath and Attunement practitioner, Dee Webster CCH, Homeopath, Jin Shin Jyutsu, Hilary Budet, board member, MHI, Homeopath and Attunement practitioner, and Denise Fogg, board member, MHI, Homeopath and Attunement practitioner for their group effort and for launching Safe Harbor Maine.   A big thank you to Hilary Lister, from Maine Matters, for her effective lobbying support for the group too.  We truly enjoyed working with these women and getting to know each of them while supporting their group efforts on weekly strategy conference calls.

Health Freedom activists from across the state and around the country are celebrating Maine’s success which will protect Maine health seekers’ rights to access traditional, cultural, complementary and alternative health care therapies and remedies freely.

NHFA works with over 30 states on the issue of protecting consumer access to services from a broad variety of practitioners practicing in the public domain and reports that in many states the medical occupation laws are so broad that natural or traditional practitioners can be shut down or criminally charged for practice of medicine or other medical occupation without a license.

Maine now joins ten other states that have passed safe harbor licensing exemption bills to protect consumer access to these practitioners.  These laws ensure that traditions and practices are preserved for generations to come. The other states are Minnesota, Rhode Island, California, Louisiana, Arizona (for Hahnemanians), Idaho (since 1975), and Oklahoma (since 1994), New Mexico, Colorado and Nevada.  NHFA’s goal is to work with state groups to eventually pass this type of legislation in all 50 states!  Please reach out to NHFA for help in getting a Safe Harbor bill, like LD 364, introduced in your state.