Texas Health Freedom Coalition

Colleagues and Friends of Texas Health Freedom,
We just found out this weekend that Senate Bill (SB) 538 is scheduled to be heard this coming Wednesday by the Senate Health and Human Services Committee at 8:30 am in hearing room E1.028 of the state capitol. A copy of the bill is available in the pages section at the left of our home page. Eight of the nine senators on the committee have co-authored the bill.

The subtitle is “related to the control of infectious diseases.” As you will see from reading this 26 page bill (and we strongly recommend you do!), if enacted into law, this bill grants unprecedented police powers to the state, up to and including involuntary incarceration if there is even a suspicion that someone has been exposed to an infectious disease.

If you pair this bill with others being considered, such as HB 465, which will create a mandatory, statewide vaccination tracking system, you can see that there is high potential for abuse of basic human rights.

How can you help? By doing the following:
1. Contact your Texas state senator (NOT US Senator!) and tell him to tell his colleagues on the Texas Senate Health and Human Services Committee to leave the bill pending in committee. You can find contact information for your senator by filling in the “Who Represents Me?” block on the home page. We suggest you call their Austin office (area code 512). You can say something like “I am greatly concerned about the potential for abuse of my rights contained in Senate Bill 538. It is being heard this Wednesday by the Health and Human Services Committee. Please have Senator (the name of your senator) ask his colleagues on the committee to leave the bill pending in committee.”

2. Please forward the alerting message you received to all Texans. Every one of our fellow Texans needs to know about this potential abuse of our human rights.

3. Attend the hearing in capitol room E1.028 at 8:30 am on Wednesday morning. See the capitol map in the pages section of our home page for location. The committee clerk will show you how to fill out the witness card. You do NOT have to testify orally if you don’t want to! You need only register your opposition via the witness card. If you plan on attending, there is every possibility that the hearing will be delayed, so plan on spending the entire day at the capitol.

The combination of bills being considered during this session poses the greatest combined threat to our freedoms that we have ever faced in Texas. They start us down the slippery slope of involuntarily turning control of our bodies over to the state. Please join us in standing up for our rights.

The Executive Committee
Texas Health Freedom Coalition

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Colleagues and Friends of Texas Health Freedom,
As most of you already know, since its founding in late 2006, the Texas Health Freedom Coalition has worked tirelessly on your behalf to protect and advance health care freedom of choice in Texas.

In each of the last four legislative sessions (2007, 2009, 2011 and 2013) we have advocated for bills that would advance our collective goals, as well as opposed legislation which would hand even more power over to moneyed special interests, primarily the existing health care professional trade unions, gatekeepers of the status quo.

Despite our best efforts, during those sessions we were unable to enact the type of legislation that has proven itself successful in other states. In fact, we were told unequivocally by key legislators that that type of bill would never be enacted into law in Texas. So we have had to fundamentally rethink our entire approach.

Fortunately, we have had help in this process from some influential allies. Our friends at GovBiz Partners, a prominent Austin-based lobbying group, in concert with other allied health care professional groups, the Texas Association of Businesses, the Texas Public Policy Foundation, and key Texas legislators, have come up with a bold new strategy to enact lasting health freedom of choice in Texas.

You see, the one weakness in simply passing legislation is that there is no guarantee that a well-funded special interest group won’t come back the next legislative session and attempt to undo all the good that our bill sought to create. That kind of bill is simply not durable, and requires us to stay forever on our guard after its passage.

After talking with our allies, we have decided to pursue an amendment to the Texas constitution to guarantee our fellow Texans their right of access to the health care treatment of their choice. At the same time, we will amend the overly broad medical practice laws so that they apply only to licensed medical doctors.

Ambitious? Yes! But if we are to finally roll back the undue, money-driven influence of the established health care trade unions, we must enact a durable solution, and quickly.

How will we go about that? As a first step, we have committed to raise a minimum of $250,000 by summer’s end to fund our efforts. We will raise this money in two important ways:

1.Donations from like-minded business or wealthy individual donors.

If you look up at the right of our home page, you will see an expression of thanks to Orthomolecular Products, a natural products manufacturer which has donated $5,000 to the THFC, and has pledged another $5,000 if their donation is matched. You can help by asking your contacts within the natural products community, or wealthy individual donors (such as big MLM money earners), to match Orthomolecular’s generosity with either a $5,000 or $10,000 donation. Anyone who does so will have their names added to Orthomolecular’s on our web site, and a thank you message on their behalf sent to our entire list.

2.Individual donors like yourself.

At the lower right of our home page, you can see a PayPal link to the THFC account. You can donate any amount you are comfortable with on this link. If your personal donation is $1,000 or more, your name will be added to the individual donors’ list on our home page.

All monies donated will be used solely to support our legislative lobbying efforts. Please note: because we are a 501(c)(4) (i.e., lobbying) non-profit, this is not a tax-deductible donation. (And yes, we have obtained competent legal advice that this is the only way for us to raise money for this cause and not get dinged by the IRS!)

Please join us in this bold, innovative effort to take back the most fundamental right we have: the right to bodily integrity, to decide for ourselves how we care for our bodies, and what we put into them. With your help, and the help of a rapidly growing army of supporters, we will not fail!

Thanks for your support of Texas Health Freedom,

Your Coalition Executive Committee

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