Attack on Natural Health Care Providers

[Guest guest]

Ann Clifton

Mercury Awareness Team of

Washington

855 Trosper Road #108-174

Olympia, WA 98512-8108

360-357-6263

 

November 27, 2006

 

The Honorable Christine Gregoire

Governor

State of Washington

P.O. Box 40002

Olympia, WA 98504

 

Re: Performance Audit of the

Department of Health

 

Dear Governor Gregoire,

 

On August 16, 2006 and September 1, 2006, we sent letters to Auditor

Brian Sonntag in which we requested that Auditor Sonntag include in the audit you requested of

the Department of Health, an investigation of the Department’s relationship

with Quackwatch, a health industry tool used to attack alternative health care

providers in the Washington and elsewhere. (These letters are attached as

Attachments 1 and 2, respectively.)

 

On October 2, 2006, Jacalyn Holsted, Washington Choice, and I,

representing Washington Choice, Washington Health Care Freedom Association and

Mercury Awareness Team of Washington (MAT), met with staff members of the State

Auditor’s Office: Linda Long, of Performance Audit of the State Auditor’s Office.

Mike Evans, Ms. Long’s Confidential Secretary, and Stacia Hollar, head

of Legal Affairs.

 

At that time, we presented yet another letter dated October 2, 2006,

addressed to the Auditor’s staff members, pointing out that the Department of

Health, SOME Boards and Commissions and related Attorney General Staff are not

following state law nor legislative intent in their attempt to end the careers

of holistic practitioners, both licensed and non-licensed. (See Attachment 3.) Instead, these state actors are

following the Aetna/Quackwatch[1]

“Plan of ’96.” (See

Attachment 1-b and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Barrett

[there is an underline between “Stephen and “Barrett”].)

 

Our October 2, 2006, letter points out that the state is violating RCW

18.120.010 and RCW 18.130.180.

(See Attachment 3.) RCW

18.120.010 states that it is the legislators’ intent that licensed and

unlicensed health care professionals not be regulated “… except for the exclusive purpose of protecting the public

interest.” [Emphasis added.] In explaining what “protection of public interest” means,

the legislature stated that:

 

“…A health

profession should be regulated by the state only when: Unregulated practice can

clearly harm or endanger the health, safety, or welfare of the public, and the

potential for harm is easily recognizable and not remote or dependent upon

tenuous argument;” RCW

18.120.010(2)(a). [Emphasis added.]

 

The State Department of Health has included in its campaign against

alternative health care practitioners MDs and DOs who use non-traditional

treatments. RCW 18.130.180 relates

specifically to physicians and is intended to protect them from disciplinary

actions based on use of alternative treatment modalities. In provides:

 

“The following conduct, acts, or conditions constitute

unprofessional conduct for any license holder or applicant under the

jurisdiction of this chapter:

… Incompetence,

negligence, or malpractice which results in injury to a patient or which creates

an unreasonable risk that a patient may be harmed. The use of a nontraditional treatment by itself shall not

constitute unprofessional conduct, provided that it does not result in

injury to a patient or create an unreasonable risk that a patient may be

harmed.” RCW 18.130.180(4) [Emphasis added.]

 

One of the fictions used to justify these investigations and

prosecutions is a claim of harm from the alternative treatment because it

delays a person getting treatment (pharmaceuticals) by a licensed

physician. Such “delay” does not

“clearly harm or endanger” a person, nor is such purported harm “easily

recognizable,” but is, instead, an excellent example of speculative harm that

is both “remote” and “dependent upon tenuous argument,” all in violation of RCW

18.120.010(2)(a) and RCW 18.130.180(4).

 

In fact, allopathic medicine, in its dependence on prescribing

pharmaceuticals could more easily be said to constitute “unprofessional

conduct” in light of the fact that there are 106,000 fatal adverse reactions to

pharmaceutical drugs and 420,000 non-fatal adverse drug reactions and

prescription errors annually.[2] Thus, prescribing pharmaceutical drugs

“result in injury to the patient or create an unreasonable risk that a

patient might be harmed.”

Yet, almost without exception, the complaints filed against alternative

health care practitioners are not from patients who have been harmed, but by

competing allopathic practitioners who are protecting their market share of

patients.

Jacalyn Holsted and I also gave our Performance Audit Chart “Who’s

Next” to the state Auditor’s staff members who attended the meeting. We have

provided a highlighted copy of this chart for your review. (See Attachment 3-a.) The state, using the

Quackwatch-implemented “Plan of ’96,”

is destroying the careers of licensed and unlicensed practitioners using

Voll Electrodermal Screening (EDS).[3]

EDS helps clients remove the root causes of health problems. I have had the process done twice myself. EDS can identify natural things or

synthetic products which are not biocompatible with your body. Avoiding those triggers, or detoxifying

your body of them, can restore health.

It certainly has for me. The Pollution in People Study done by the Toxic Free

Legacy Coalition revealed that every one of the 10 participants of that study

had multiple hazardous chemicals in their bodies. Health consumers have the right to know about and remove

hazardous substances in their bodies which can be the root causes of

disease. Once those toxic

substances are removed from bodies, they often can heal themselves.

Holistic dentists are a target of this campaign against alternative

health care providers because they do not place mercury-based dental fillings,

assert that careful protocols are required to safely remove mercury dental

fillings and that tooth extractions and root canals can be the cause of jawbone

infections requiring jawbone surgeries to remove. One-third of all dentists are now mercury-free. However, the

dental industry, through disciplinary actions against mercury-free dentists,

and imposition of “gag orders,” has succeeded in keeping the public ignorant

about the very existence of mercury-based dental fillings. Zogby conducted a national poll in February

2006 which showed that 76% of citizens do not even know that mercury is the

primary component of “silver fillings.”

Upon learning this fact, 92% want dental informed consent. (See Attachment 10.)

There is a real controversy taking place within the profession of

dentistry on the safety of mercury dental filling and jawbone infection

issues. The majority are trying to

suppress the practices of the minority as a matter of market share. The “Plan of ‘96” includes suppression

of holistic dentistry.

Medical, Osteopathic and Naturopathic doctors who treat children with

autism (they are known as “DAN” doctors – Defeat Autism Now) have had

remarkable success using alternative health care treatments. (See Attachment 6, Jenny Greenwood

letter with the Mercury Awareness Team [MAT] “Mercury is a Poison” handout

attached.)

The state, as we show in the “Who’s Next” chart (Attachment 3-a), is

also investigating and prosecuting acupuncturists, holistic medical doctors,

mercury-free dentists, midwives, nutritionists, homeopaths, non-licensed colon

hydrotherapists and detoxification specialists of all types.

Auditor, Brian Sonntag, responded to us in writing on October 16, 2006,

that he could not, at this time, change the scope of the Performance Audit that

he was conducting of the Department of Health. He suggested that we should do a

series of Public Records Requests as set out in the attached letter and

chart. (See Attachment 5.)

This suggestion from Auditor Sonntag will be time consuming and

expensive to carry out. We

obviously do not have subpoena power that the auditor or the Attorney General

has. We also do not have the

resources to pay for the research and copy costs for these Public Records

requests. Why is the auditor

sending us on a wild goose chase when he could obtain these same documents with

a simple request?

We are working on behalf of the public. The alternative health care

practitioners whom thousands of

Washingtonians rely upon to become and stay healthy are being driven out of

practice in our state. Many

patients truly believe that their lives are at stake if they cannot have access

to the alternative practitioners who are helping them deal with their health

issues.

We are alleging corruption.

We have provided evidence that Quackwatch, health insurance provider,

and state medical and dental boards have conspired to eliminate alternative

health care providers because of their economic threat to allopathic

practitioners.

By investigating and prosecuting alternative healthcare practitioners,

without instigating patient complaints, the state’s medical and dental boards

are bankrupting these practitioners.

One such practitioner, Monte Kline, PhD., asserts that he has spent

$400,000 in attorney’s fees defending himself and he was fined $2 million! This decision was reversed by the Court

of Appeals and Dr. Kline may yet recoup his attorney’s fees (from Washington

taxpayers). (See, Attachment 7.)

Clearly the state should not be used by Quackwatch, insurance companies

or national medical or dental board organizations to eliminate competition for

allopathic medicine/dentistry.

We are asking you, as the Governor of this state and the Chief

Executive of all state agencies, to amend your Performance Audit request to the

State Auditor to include all of our question as set out in the 3 letters we

have attached (Attachments 1-3.)

This would require that you ask Auditor Sonntag to amend the RFP or

request him to do some of the auditing work in-house. We also ask that an independent legal advisor, or an

Assistant Attorney General with no ties to the medical or dental boards, be

assigned to this project to evaluate if there has been any violations of civil

or criminal laws in the investigations and prosecutions of alternative health

care providers, in contravention of RCW 18.120.010 or RCW 18.130.180.

The State of Washington is “ground zero” in implementing the “Plan of

‘96” simply because this state is at the forefront of alternative healthcare

training and provision of such services.

If the “Plan of ‘96” is successful in this state, it will be replicated

throughout the country. What is so

stunning is that this is happening in a state that has the strongest laws protecting

alternative health care practices and practitioners.

Conclusion: The Performance Audit

of the Department of Health should be expanded to include the questions raised

by the Mercury Awareness Team.

That is much more cost effective than requesting a second audit. The questions we have raised in our

letters are inextricably intertwined with a thorough performance audit of

DOH. A thorough performance

audit of DOH would also look at the issues you have raised about the Boards and

Commissions related to DOH functions, as well as DOH staff and its assigned

Attorney General staff, including investigators.

While the focus of your requested audit is the failure of these actors

to investigate and prosecute health care practitioners who are violating laws

and harming the public, the reverse side of that coin is the taxpayer dollars

being spent instead

to investigate and prosecute holistic practitioners who have harmed no one,

have helped many and whose only “crime” is receiving an ever-increasing market

share of health care consumers.

I am not an economist, but even I can understand that the more health

care practitioners there are in the market place, and the more choices health

care consumers have, the more competition there is for the health care dollar

and the less we are going to pay for the care of our choice. Health and dental insurance companies

and government programs like Medicare and Medicaid have given a monopoly to

allopathic practitioners. Their

reliance on pharmaceuticals, the primary driver of health care cost increases,

has given us the broken system we struggle with today. Despite this monopoly, health care

consumers with the disposable income to do so, choose to pay out-of-pocket for

the health care they perceive as better quality. This exacerbates economic injustice in this country.

At this time, clients of holistic practitioners under attack by the

state are very angry. They want to

be able to choose their own health care practitioners. They want to avoid toxic exposures in

their environment, in their food and in their health care. Individuals cannot avoid these

exposures if they don’t know about them.

And, even if they do know about them, they can’t avoid breathing the air

or drinking water, so some exposures are not avoidable by the common man. Government should be helping us avoid

these toxic exposures, not investigating and prosecuting our health care

practitioners who are trying to help us stay or get well.

As Governor, you have the power to require a single comprehensive

audit. We urgently request that you do so.

Sincerely,

Ann

Clifton, Mercury Awareness Team

Cc: Brian Sonntag, State Auditor

Brad

Owen, Lt. Governor

Rob

McKenna, Attorney General

Senator

Lisa Brown

Senator

Karen Keiser

Senator

Marilyn Rasmussen

Representative

Frank Chopp, Speaker of the House

Representative

Cody

Representative

Bill Hinkle

Representative

Tom Campbell

Encl:

#1. August 16, 2006 E-mail letter to Brain

Sonntag from MAT

a) Page

3 (line 10) Ann Clifton testimony to House Health Care Committee

b) Page

3 (line 13) Plan of 96

c) Page

3 (line 14) DAMS Newsletter – Debra Hopkins case

#2.

September 1, 2006, letter to Brian Sonntag from MAT

#3.

October 2, 2006, letter to Brian Sonntag from MAT

a) Who’s

Next Chart

#4.

October 3, 2006, Minutes of the October 2, 2006, meeting with State

Auditor staff. Minutes drafted by Jacalyn Holsted of

Washington Choice.

#5.

October 16, 2006, letter to Ann Clifton of MAT from State Auditor Brian

Sonntag with his chart.

#6. Jenny Greenwood letter stapled to

“Mercury is a Poison” from MAT

#7. Monte Kline, PhD, case review

#8. Geoff Ames, M.D., case review

#9. Tim Bolen – “Is American Dentistry

Killing Us?” May 23, 2005

#10. Zogby Poll on

Mercury Amalgam Dental Fillings

#11. WHO, Criteria #118

(1991) - Report – On Average 80%

of Mercury Body

Burden is from Dental Mercury

#12 Wisconsin Wars 1, 2,

3 and 4

[1]

Quackwatch is run out of an ad agency in New York City. It was created by and funded by 26

pharmaceutical companies. Aetna

Insurance Company, using information it receives for insurance reimbursements,

identifies alternative practitioners, works up “fraud” cases, convinces state

medical and dental boards to investigate and prosecute these alternative

practitioners, and then pays for the state’s “experts” if they use the

Quackwatch “experts” (who have been completely discredited in many legal forums

around the country).

[2]

http://whale.to/a/null9.html

[3]

EDS is a

safe method of biofeedback classified by the FDA as a Class II device – in the

same category as surgical drapes and power wheelchairs.

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