What do you think is the most effective way to turn this idea into real policy? Add your suggestions here for how you think we should run an advocacy campaign to advance the idea – including the overall strategy, messaging, targets, and tactics.

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1. 

   Their has to be contral on health care and insureance comps. that over rule doctors stating that a person should have surgery.
   But the insureance says no or need more infermation.
   Also some doctors say that they will do the surgery but if the insureance doesnt pay him enough than you make up the difference. But if you are on medical retirement from a city goverment that you only made $6.06 dollars a hour when you worked for them and hade to take a 10% cut in pay to go out on medical retirement.
   Did you known that I did not even receive the last stimale cheeck because I was paid from a privit retirement fune and
   not a goverment one. But fedral and realroad workers did.
   I make just enough not to get food stamps. But according to some in my home town I am classed as provity.
   Martin Baskin

   Suggested by Martin Baskin on 01/17/2009 @ 03:53AM PT

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2. 

   I think this is more a matter of leaving us free as human beings to use the natural products without interference as opposed to the suggestion from Dr. Zennet above where she offers:
   
   "This transformation will require research, education and advocacy- the establishment of new research standards and protocols to evaluate natural products and services for use in chronic disease conditions"
   
   Her political concerns about the Hippocratic oath bypass the most important bit of wisdom passed on by him: "Let thy food be thy medicine and let thy medicine be thy food!"
   
   What is ignored also is the immense body of research already available supporting orthomolecular approaches. By way of example, we have research on record since the 1930-40's showing the efficacy of vitamins in conditions such as cancer, addiction and so called "mental illness". These studies have been marginalized by a health care system which profits most from drugs and surgery.
   
   Check out Dr. Andrew Saul's website at:
   
    http://DoctorYourself.com
   
   Lest I be hauled in by the FDA for advocating that American citizens practice medicine without a license, I have to disclaim that I am not a doctor and I do not diagnose, treat or cure disease. Should you need medical advice, please consult your allopathic or licensed health care practitioner.
   
   That said, I want to require that allopathic physicians be required to disclaim as well as alternative practitioners and these are some of the possibilities:
   
   "Before you let me cut you to peices, I want you to be aware that I am legally barred from providing you nutritional and orthomolecular treatments which have been shown to have equal or better success rates for your illness"
   
   - or, the Heath Ledger Memorial disclaimer:
   
   "Before you are added to the almost 50% of Americans who take one or more prescription medications and follow my instructions exactly, you could become one of the over 106,000 people who die every year from adverse drug reactions."
   
   Or how about this one for cancer patients:
   
   "before you agree to surgery, chemotherapy and radiation for your illness, I just wanted to let you know that these therapies have no better chance of helping you now than they did in 1972 when we declared the war on cancer, when the incidence of cancer was half of what it is today, and we have spent over 32 billion dollars on research and are saving no greater percentage of patients now than we were then! That said, my buddies and I have managed to enroll the government in preventing you from having any alternative."
   
   I am disinclined to wait around for new bureaucracy to sign off on my right to take nutritional or orthomolecular approaches to treating my own body. I am disinclined to be polite, politically correct or patient.
   
   My suggestions:
   
   Eliminate the FDA's authority over any food substance, vitamin or mineral. Likewise the FTC and EPA can stay out of it also. We need to be protected from fraudulent and dangerous products no doubt. My feeling is that the most dangerous products on the market are pharmaceuticals and that is where they can focus their attention.
   
   End conflict of interest between government and industry. The cozy relationship between industry and all Federal and State regulatory agencies including the FDA, USDA and FTC is a very serious part of this problem.
   
   Force the Pharmaceutical companies to do all drug trials "on shore" instead of in the third world where they can hide their mistakes and exploit the already disenfranchised.
   
   Repeal and restructure the Prescription Drug Benefit legislation of 2003 and restore the basic tenets of Federal Aquisition regulations by requiring "best price" for covered pharmaceuticals.
   
   Allow Americans the freedom to purchase their pharmaceuticals from Canada. If it is ok to use NAFTA to export our jobs, why can't we import our drugs at lower cost?
   
   Fully ratify and enforce the Stockholm accords and eliminate all subversion of the accords by reconstituting the representation of the United States on the UN Codex Committee with representative of the public sector, not just the chemical, pharmaceutical and agribusiness special interests.
   
   Bar Pharmaceutical companies from having any financial or ownership ties to health insurance companies, HMO's or hospitals. Likewise for all other providers & payers, so that patient benefit and low cost products procedure and other services, come first. These built in conflicts of interest always leave us impoverished and under cared for.
   
   Mandate the inclusion of alternative practices in IRS Cafeteria 125 health benefit plans to give us the freedom to use our pre-tax set asides to pay for the alternative modalities we want to have access to. Presently, we only get to buy more pharmaceuticals or allopathic services. This is simply another way the government enforces the allopathic monopoly. In some plans we get to use Chiropractic and accupuncture but the are not universally available.
   
   End the government enforced restrictions on non-surgical, non-chemo, non-radiation approaches to cancer therapy. It is just wrong to force Americans to leave this country for alternative treatment.
   
   Have this Health Freedom issue led by a group that got us into the top ten. Genuflecting to the Allopathic Medical "industry" as a prerequisite for progress is like the Protestants playing nice with the Papacy.
   
   We are going to have to fight for our freedom!
   
   
   

   Suggested by Kevin Kiernan on 01/16/2009 @ 05:33PM PT

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3. 

   President-elect Obama will offer some form of universal health care coverage.  However, we need to fix the health care system as well.   As a patient and a former employee (I used to work at a famous hospital on Long Island) of the health care system - I have first-hand knowledge on how the care system works in America.   Close to 100,000 people die each year in hospitals due to medical errors. The hospital I worked at had too much administrative waste.  There was endless paperwork in processing patient information.  Many of the positions, especially in the non-medical areas, were filled through nepotism.  Many of the supervisors and mid-level managers at this hospital were concerned about how they looked to top administrators, rather then perform their jobs effectively.  (CYA was the major activity).   A question I would like to ask the general public, particularly doctors -  How come doctors never challenge other doctors?   Right after I graduated college I was “confused,” doing drugs, and getting into trouble; so my parents sent me to psychiatrist.  The psychiatrist said I was “mentally ill” and he sent me to neurologist for my tests. (Our family doctor stated at first I did not need any tests, and then he changed his mind.)  The neurologist examined my brain and said I was fine.  I just needed to “grow up.”  

   Suggested by Larry Nelson on 01/16/2009 @ 03:48PM PT

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4. 

   We believe that the human body was designed by God and nature to be healthy, and that LIFE LIVED IN PEACE AND HARMONY WITH NATURE GRANTS HEALTH AS OUR NATURAL STATE. We are provided with the gift of self-healing at birth.  It is not required that we fully understand this natural process in all its complexities, we just need to avoid getting in its way. We believe that, in the broadest sense, the roots of lifestyle diseases are embedded in our culture and are manifested in damaging personal attitudes, biases, and habits promoted by our culture, as well as in the industries that have become financially and politically invested in these damaging lifestyles and/or the consequences of these lifestyles.   It is an unfortunate fact that the culture reinforces damaging lifestyles as long as there are groups that financially profit from them.  But we cannot wait for the culture to change in order to alter our lifestyles. We must save ourselves! This is literally a matter of life or death... your personal life or death! So we must all accept the responsibility to care for our own health and do what is necessary to maintain it.  We must reject damaging cultural attitudes and behaviors.  We must become sufficiently enlightened and empowered to adopt lifestyles that enhance our health and wellness, and allow our bodies to function as God and nature intended. So long as we practice damaging, self-defeating lifestyles we will suffer from chronic, recurrent health problems, along with frequent doctor's office visits, lifetime drug maintenance and occasional hospitalizations and surgeries.    If you want to prevent or cure a health problem, it's up to you.  The World Health Organization has estimated that seventy percent of all disease is caused by inappropriate and unhealthy lifestyles. We suspect, based on our experience, that percentage is even higher. So since the cause of most disease is usually in your lifestyle, your health and wellness has to be up to you.  But we can help the process. We can use knowledge from health research, physiology, biology, and anthropology to address the lifestyle causes of disease.  Our solutions are science-based and easy to understand.  They are testable and provable. It has been said that Truth is eternal. Thus, some truths are not discovered, but are recovered. Much of the information available to us has been thought and said by others throughout history. The reason these truths, that are supported by legitimate, well-designed research and clinical studies reported in respected, refereed scientific journals and books go unheard, is because they are often suppressed and ignored by the groups that profit from disease. The business model of these essentially unregulated, amoral corporate grifters is designed to generate profits for their majority stockholders and executives no matter what the cost in human suffering and death. They are multi-national and generally accountable to no one. Using their vast financial power, they conduct media propaganda operations that dictate how we are to think about our health and wellness, and conceal their role as profiteers in the "business" of death and suffering of our people.  We propose to provide our people with the essential personal skills and knowledge they need to protect themselves from these merchants of death, and achieve health and wellness by altering their own lifestyles. "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge" Hosea 4:6  Dr. Walter Goodpastor
   Institute for Naturopathic Healing  

   Suggested by Dr. Walter on 01/16/2009 @ 08:34AM PT

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5. 

   This transformation will require research, education and advocacy- the establishment of new research standards and protocols to evaluate natural products and services for use in chronic disease conditions; education for patients, legislators and the entire health care community, and advocacy- laws need to be rewritten to reflect these new standards of care and protection for patients and treatment facilities.
   
   Patient informed consent needs to include the latest clinical information on quality natural health products and services, so a patient can make a truly informed decision.
   
   At NAHR, we have MD's, health researchers working on these standards, if we can help you, we are most privileged to do so.
   
   We also need to deal with conventional medicine tactfully, yet firmly, on behalf of quality patient care. I believe that will be best handled by those of us practicing within the current system. If we do not, we risk violating our Hippocratic Oath- and that is completely and totally unacceptable.
   
   I believe a coalition of individuals and organizations needs to be formed, the makings of which are taking place right here at www.change.org
   
   Please let us at NAHR know how else we may assist you.
   
   Best wishes,
   Mary Zennett, MD, MBA
   Founder   National Alliance for Health Reform
   Author- 'Health For US All: The Transformation of US Health Care'
   nahrteam@gmail.com

   Suggested by Dr Mary Zennett on 01/16/2009 @ 08:10AM PT

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