About Washington CHOICE

Recent public outcry has begun to force the need for change in the way our government is handling our ability to make health care choices. However, the reality is that bureacratic solutions such as the recently governor-issued performance audit will take a relatively long time. And in the meantime, memories will fade, and as is so often the case in government process, only special interest groups will continue to monitor and attempt to influence the process. In this case, mainstream medicine is one of the most powerful and influential special interest groups. And it has a reputation for slowly and subtly twisting reform movements originating from scandals in mainstream medicine into further restrictions on alternative practitioners.

In order to guard against this, as well as to (hopefully) influence the next session of the state legislature to curb the war on holistic physicians, Washington State physicians, patients, and friends of holistic MDs have organized the Washington Health Care Freedom Association (WaHCFA) in Eastern Washington (east of the Cascade Mountains), and has created the Washington Citizens for Health Options, Integrity, and Clinical Excellence (WaCHOICE) west of the Cascades.

These sister organizations are aiming to enable consumers in Washington to freely choose from a full range of health care options that they believe will best serve their health care needs, including holistic, complementary, integrative, and nutritional methods of care and treatment. They're also hoping to ensure that health care providers are able to offer those options without fear of administrative repercussion.

One of our first plans of action as WaCHOICE is to have holistic physicians appointed to the MQAC. Although 13 of the MQAC's 19 members are MDs, none of them are holistic MDs. And to compound the problem, all of the present 13 MD members have been observed to be hostile to holistic medicine. If that doesn't work, we are also considering creating a separate board to supervise holistic physicians, a step that's already been taken in Nevada and Arizona. We are also endeavoring to raise awareness and pursue legal channels where necessary to ensure our right to continue to deliver—and a patient's right to choose—holistic medicine as a health care choice.