A question posted to me by a friend
Last week was talking to a friend of mine who is in his early 60s. Like most of us over the age of 50 we have some health issues. His are all maintence medicine based. Hypertension, type 2 diabetic. Some joint ills but over all a healthy man. And he lost his job. I’ve said it before losing your job is a SHTF event. He now has no health insurance and has to pay out of pocket for his medications. On insurance they were only about 30 bucks a month. This month they will be over 300 bucks. And to had to his problem of not having work, he has been sent a notice that he needs to obtain insurance or be fined by the IRS. Talk about insult to injury! I helped him with some alternative medicines. It took a few days for getting the doses right, and he is good to go.
He asked me why don’t I open a clinic for people like him. I told him he must not like me much. He asked why. I told him there is something called practicing medicine with out a license and it is jail time here in New Mexico. I told him that by the letter of the law I could be fined for even suggesting to him that certain herbs would MAYBE help his blood pressure and diabetes. He told me that it was a BS law and if both parties are in agreement then Eff the government. I told him that I agree to a point. But also see the need for the laws.
In Santa Fe NM in 2013 a dentist was practicing out of his car and doing house calls. He carried his tools in a tackle box and they were filthy. Last year in Clovis a person stole the identity of a PA and assumed his person and worked in a clinic until late he almost killed a patient. There are hundreds of such cases in the US every year.
But what if there was a way for herbal healers to fill the nitch that people are tossed in when they lose their insurance?
Here in New Mexico we have what is called Las Curanderas. Healers
It is a 4 step program that has no books no degrees. And is practiced in my home country of Mora NM. The stages of Curanderismo are yerbera (herbalist) and continuing with the partera (midwife), sobadora (folk chiropractor), and curandera espiritual (spiritual healer). Curanderas are both male and female. Females being the predominant Curanderas. They practice pretty much unmolested by the FDA and State of NM medical boards, mainly because if 1. They tried to arrest a Curandera or Curandero the arresting official probably would not make out alive. 2. Curanderas do not charge in the way that modern doctors charge. Sometimes it’s a little money but mostly it’s barter of one form or another. 3 Every Curandera that I know, knows their limits. They know there are some things that they can not fix. And they talk their patients into seeing a doctor.
Back to the question I got asked. My friend asked why couldn’t I fill the role of a Curandera in our town. And I told him because of the laws. He reported that they don’t eff with them up north. I told him Do YOU go to Mora County much? He said nope. I asked why. He said he is to damn white. I told him, now do you see why they don’t go up and mess with those people. I told him I have thought about it. But fear of going to jail and also that my version of curandera espiritua would not be accepted by most people because of my faith. If there ever was a time the we need more Las Curanderas is today.
A dear freind of mine and I were talking this same thing last night, She told me, “You can teach how to set one up a herbal clinical practice, perhaps ask for volunteers for teaching purposes. Charge students for the clinical experience, but make volunteers sign forms knowing that they are not receiving medical care, or something along those lines”
Damn good ideas, but I need to find a lawyer who, 1 understands medical law in NM and 2 won’t go ape crap crazy over someone using herbs to treat a person with.
As I said earlier this type of medical professional is one that we desperately need. Our ERs are over flowing with people seeking primary care for the sniffles or a sore throat. We have so many people that need just basic medical care to control hypertension, type 2 diabetes, strep throat minor things nd nd can’t afford a few hundred bucks to get in to see a doctor about. Many decades ago I was a young company Medic. We had a list of what we could treat and what we couldn’t. When I ran into something that was not on my list, I loaded that solider in my jeep and ran him to the TMC’S. There he saw a PA or a NP. They had a list of what they could treat. And if what was wrong fell outside their scope they brought in a full MD. Sounds like a bunch of time? Hell it was less than sitting in the waiting room of your family practice doc.
But we all know that something like that will not happen. Me making a salve to treat a rash and I get paid with a beef roast and a sack of potatoes. The system acts like that will cause the collapse of the medical industrial complex. And I will be tossed in jail and or fined faster than a meth dealer.
So I am regulated to slink around like a pusher on a dark corner while wearing a trench coat and say “Pssst. He you. Want to buy an herbal cough drop?” Yes medical practice laws have a good side. To keep dirt bags from hurting people. But at the same time the laws are hurting people who desperately need medicine and are forced to seek out a person who may help them, or may take their money and leave them to die. Maybe as a compromise some of us herbal medics should do an internship with the Curanderas and learn how they work and bring it to the Anglo side, and to keep the practice of from dying.
While we wait for something to happen one more person shuffles off down the hell road because they could not afford a bottle of Hydrochlorothiazide, the cheapest blood pressure medication and the law would not allow me to help them with a few capsules of Celery seed.
Think about that when your world changes and your health insurance is canceled.