Health Freedom Act and Naturopathy Essay Example

Introduction

More Americans seeking natural and complementary health care providers regarding prevention, wellness, and whole person care are now increasingly focused on naturopathy as an alternative. Saris & Wardle (2017) illustrates that there has been an increased need for licensed naturopathic health care providers as members of professional care providing clinical teams in various medical centers around the United States. Over twenty-eight hospitals, prominent health systems and treatment centers for cancer now have more than one licensed naturopathic doctors as part of their staff in the facilities. It is therefore vital to understand the licensing and law considerations that are involved in the practice of naturopathy. In this paper, the practice of naturopathy in the United States will be analyzed regarding the licensing and legal regulations that are involved in it. Additionally, the implications of the health freedom act on naturopathy will be discussed together with the benefits that it has on this practice.

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Naturopathy in the United States

Naturopathy takes a wholesome approach to the proactive prevention of illness and holistic diagnostic and treatment of underlying causes using traditional healing interventions, practices, and principles. Naturopathic doctors combine the knowledge of cooperating with nature with their understanding of science to utilize gentle treatments that support the healing power of the human body (World Health Organization, 2010). In the United States, Naturopathic health care providers complete a rigorous, science-based, four year, post-graduate education in a recognized naturopathic medical training college that is accredited by the United States Department of Education. Naturopathy involves the practice of personalized medicinal approaches and consideration of each individual's unique situations regarding genetics, lifestyle and environmental factors.

Various types of naturopathic medicine are practiced in the United States. These variations depend on factors that relate to homeopathy, surgery, nutritional counseling and botanical medicine. Clinical nutrition as one of the varieties of Naturopathy in the United States deals with methods of healing illnesses by controlling foods and beverages that are consumed. Herbalism, on the other hand, deals with the use of botanical medicine through the use of plants or plant extracts to treat conditions (Bakhru, 1994). Homeopathy deals with the selection and preparation of natural substances for intake through prescription. Chinese medicine and Acupuncture is also one these variations deals with the use of eastern herbs together with acupuncture which is the use of tiny needles and strategical insertion of these needs to the human body to deal with certain conditions. Another form of naturopathy in the United States is lifestyle counseling that deals with preventive and curing care that involved addressing conditions by changing the lifestyle and habits of an individual.

Several licensing regulations affect the practice of naturopathy in the United States. Like other professions, regulation of naturopathy is strongly correlated to the educational standards and political landscape of the United States (World Health Organization, 2010). The Federation of naturopathic medicine regulatory authorities was established to protect the public by linking regulatory authorities and endorsing ethics of excellence in the regulation of naturopathic medicine in the United States. Many states were regulated between 1920 and 1950, but ever since the introduction of sunset laws, most of the states have lost such regulations. In the 1980s, there was a tremendous increase in the regulatory practices that were endorsed on naturopathic doctors in the United States.

Various statutes and laws, therefore, have been changed and approved to manage naturopathy in the United States. One of these laws is SB 1050, Yee. This law makes the Naturopathic Medicine committee exclusively responsible for the implementation of the Naturopathic doctor's act. This law also authorizes the committee to make necessary appointments of executive officers and employees as necessary. Therefore this law grants the committee the power to license naturopathic doctors in California and other states in the United States. SB 1246, Negrete McLeod, on the other hand, adds naturopathic doctors that are licensed to the category of people who may have roles in laboratory directing and performing clinical tests and examination (Sarris & Wardle, 2017). The same laws authorize a naturopathic assistant to execute certain clinical procedures that may require technical support services for a licensed Naturopathic doctor (B & P Section 3613 (g)).

Additionally, the law allows naturopathic assistants to perform various medical procedures such as conducting skin tests, collecting specimens for testing and performing venipuncture to draw blood. For licensing purposes, the above laws stipulate that training of Naturopathic doctors should include pertinent anatomy, choice of equipment, emergency procedures and patient care tests and treatments among others. However, states like South Carolina and Tennessee prohibit the practice of naturopathy.

The Health Care Freedom Act disallows health insurers from complying with federal subsidies under the affordable care act that initiate the employer mandate. This act bans funding to public providers that provide abortion. . Some of the aspects affected by the act largely affect Naturopathy in the United States (Lin et al. 2006). The law introduced Restrictive naturopathic doctor licensing. This limited exemptions for those people that provided information at their retail, consulting establishment or spa about naturopathic medicine. This bill created a need to understand the increasing need for naturopathic medicine in the United States which further established the interest in people in all natural health practitioners. Under the same act, naturopathic physician licensing was banned for anyone that claimed to be a naturopath but had no endorsement by a recognized licensing body. This was a great leap forward in terms of strengthening naturopathy in the United States.

The law defined licensing methods and practices that were meant to certify naturopathic doctors in the United States. Such definitions have therefore been used by various states to create specific requirements that would ensure that naturopathy is endorsed for those who are qualified. This has greatly increased the quality of care provided by Naturopathic doctors (Sarris & Wardle, 2017). Therefore, by enabling the understanding of naturopathic medicine in the United States, such regulations have distinctively projected naturopathy in various medical institutions in the country. For various states such as Tennessee, Naturopathy was banned since the federal government did not agree with the stipulations. Therefore the health freedom act has greatly affected licensing strategies for naturopathic doctors in the United States which has therefore projected interests of people in the practice of that type of medicine. At the same time, by definition of the roles and activities that are allowed or not for each jurisdiction, various states have opted to enhance the practice by driving institutions to engage in this type of clinical practice.

Health freedom about naturopathy has been affected by many legislations in the past. Some of these legislations have had both positive and negative effects on the way that naturopathic doctors perform clinical procedures (Sarris & Wardle, 2017). For the advantages, licensing implications have defined newer and better ways in which naturopathy can be conducted in the United States. The health freedom act has restricted and allowed various practices for medical practitioners including naturopaths. Overall, health freedom legislation wording is different in most of the states, but their effect is more or less the same.

By refining standards of care that are provided in health care facilities, naturopaths have been presented with a rubric for which health care is administered to patients. For practices that may be disallowed in states, Naturopaths are encouraged to get alternative care that would have the same care (Lin et al. 2006). This establishes further research in the field and therefore increasing the number of works that would enhance naturopathy in the United States. In Wisconsin, the introduction of consumer care capabilities to wellness choices has been exempted to unlicensed practice of clinical medicine. This is also an excellent addition to the practice naturopathy since various clinical practices have been into scrutiny for their effect on the health of patients. In this manner, Wisconsin alone has been able to increase the quality of care that is provided by Naturopathic doctors and how issues related to licensing are handled in the state.

Conclusion

Conclusively, the increase of interests in naturopathy has motivated various implication on health freedom in the United States. Additionally, as interests increase in the field, more and more people become more affiliated with the idea of natural medicine for dealing with conditions. In this manner, naturopathy has occupied a good percentage of what prefer as medical interventions for various conditions. In the United States, multiple changes in legislation have affected the practice of naturopathy and how individuals view the practice. By stipulation of licensing procedures and needs, the law has affected health freedom that applies to naturopathic doctors in the United States.

References

Bakhru, H. K. (1994). A complete handbook of nature cure: The most comprehensive familyguide to health the natural way. Mumbai: Jaico Pub. House.

Lin, V, New South Wales. Dept. of Health, Bensoussan, Alan, University of WesternSydney, Myers, Stephen, Dr., McCabe, Pauline, La Trobe University, ... Centre forComplementary Medicine. (2006). The practice and regulatory requirements ofnaturopathy and western herbal medicine. Bundoora, Vic. La Trobe University.

Sarris, J., & Wardle, J. (2017). Clinical naturopathy: In practice. Chatswood, N.S.W. Elsevier.

World Health Organization. (2010). Benchmarks for training in Ayurveda: Benchmarks fortraining in traditional complementary and alternative medicine. Geneva: World HealthOrganization.