Safe Harbor State Action Update

NHFA tracks hundreds of state bills protecting unlicensed practitioners and the right to obtain health­ care from those alternative and complementary practitioners. The list below is an update from January 2018 to December 2023.

The goal is to empower citizens to make
health care decisions with the information they need.

 NHFA is committed to the passage of Safe Harbor Exemption bills for protecting access to indepen­dent health care practitioners who do not hold state occupational licenses and are currently practicing in the public domain.

Historically these practitioners have been unfairly charged with the practice of medicine without a license. Safe Harbor exemption laws for these practitioners are needed in order to protect consumer access to the broad range of health care and healing practitioners, such as herbalists, traditional naturopaths, ho­meopaths, body workers, and culturally specific healing practices, that are not currently licensed or reg­istered by the states and that do not rise to the level of concern requiring state oversight, certification, registration, or licensure.

Eleven states now protect consumer access to unlicensed health care practitioners, including Oklahoma, Idaho, Minnesota, Rhode Island, California, Louisiana, New Mexico, Arizona (limited exemption for homeopaths passed in Arizona), Colorado, and Nevada and Maine. Other states are preparing for the future.

• Green indicates that a Safe Harbor law has passed, in some form
• Blue indicates that a state is actively working on a Safe Harbor bill
• Light Blue indicates that a state has worked on a bill in the past but is currently inactive
• Red indicates no one is currently working on a Safe Harbor bill

The following 10 page report is a table of bills, primarily having to do with
OCCUPATIONAL LICENSURE ISSUES, 
which we have opposed or supported to protect health freedoms.