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| KNOW . . . The Access to Medical Treatment Act |
The Access to Medical Treatment Act
108th Congress
H.R.2085 and S.1410
H.R. 2085 introduced 5/14/03
S.1410 introduced 7/15/03
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The Access to Medical Treatment is a health freedom bill that will create a federal statutory right for health consumers to choose complementary and alternative health therapies.
Conceived as a patient's bill of rights, this bill authorizes the provision of and access to traditional medicines and proven alternative therapies that are being used safely and effectively by millions of people worldwide.
The Access to Medical Treatment Act is a freedom of choice bill.
Provided that patients are not misled or misinformed, the right to use non-conventional medicine extends freedom of choice to the realm of medicine.
It establishes the right to access any mode of treatment a patient or patient's health care practitioner believes is in the patient's best interests.
This legislation recognizes that not all patients are willing to accept the risks of adverse side effects from conventional medicines or procedures when less toxic and less invasive therapies are available.
This legislation affirms that an individual suffering from a disease for which conventional medicine offers limited or no hope should not be denied access to alternative treatment if there is reason to believe that it might be beneficial.
This legislation will protect practitioners from censorship, harassment, or recrimination for using unconventional therapies.
This legislation rightfully returns the medical decision-making authority to the patient and reasserts the sanctity of the doctor-patient relationship.
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| The Access to Medical Treatment Act |
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The Access to Medical Treatment Act (AMTA) permits any individual to be treated with any medical treatment that the individual desires (including a treatment that is not approved, certified, or licensed by the Secretary of Health and Human Services) by any health care practitioner who is legally authorized to provide health services in the state in which the services are provided, so long as:
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1) the treatment causes no harm more serious than reactions experienced with routinely used medical treatments for the same medical conditions; and
2) the patient is fully informed about the treatment and its possible side effects, and
3) the administration of such treatment does not violate licensing laws.
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The bill does not dismantle the FDA or allow pharmaceutical companies to circumvent the agency.
This legislation merely attempts to open up a closed system to the utilization of new, alternative treatments.
The bill requires a practitioner to report: (1) the positive effects of an non-conventional medical treatment for a life-threatening medical condition; or (2) discovery that administering such treatment is a danger to an individual.
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For more information on this legislation, contact:
American Association for Health Freedom
P.O. Box 458 • Great Falls, Virginia •22066
703-759-0662 • Fax 703-759-6711
www.healthfreedom.net
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| Support Health Freedom…Contact your Representatives |
| Sample Letter to Senators and Congressman |
Capitol Hill Address:
112 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-0505
RE: Access to Medical Treatment Act
Dear:
As a constituent and health care consumer, I am writing to ask you to cosponsor the Access to Medical Treatment Act, (HR 2085, SB 1410).
It would give me the right to use traditional medicine and alternative therapies that have not yet been approved by the FDA.
This patients' Bill of Rights returns the medical decision-making authority to the patient, and reasserts the sanctity of the doctor-patient relationship.
Most importantly, it gives American consumers access to the many drugs and therapies that are available to people all over the world, but which are denied or discouraged in the United States.
Today, we have a two-tiered medical system: one track for people who can afford to pay for life-promoting traditional medicine and alternative therapies and one track for the rest of us.
As a result, we are condemning millions of Americans to a life of pain and even premature death because they cannot use or have access to safe and effective medicine that is available elsewhere in the world.
Benjamin Rush, MD, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and personal physician to George Washington said: "Unless we put medical freedom into the Constitution, the time will come when medicine will organize into an undercover dictatorship to restrict the art of healing to one class of men and deny equal privileges to others; the Constitution of the Republic should make a special privilege for medical freedoms as well as religious freedom."
Please co-sponsor the Access to Medical Treatment Act and protect my right to make medical decisions for my family and myself.
Sincerely,
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