-by Jennifer Derwey
As people age, health care and prescriptions can become a large part of their concerns and their monthly costs. A poll from the Canadian Medical Association shows that,
The survey of Canadians aged 45-plus shows that 78 per cent of them are worried that they will not be able to access necessary health services like homecare and long-term care in a timely fashion when they need them.
Will these fears be realized by funding cuts to health care in Canada? And if so, will it impact Canadian legislation on euthanasia if health care becomes less accessible for our aging population?
Long term and home care are a vital part of the Canadian health care system, and access to these services must be maintained and even improved if we are going to continue to provide quality health care to Canadians.
A ranking by the World Health Organization in 2000 placed Canada 30th in terms of their health care system, and yet Canada came 10th in expenditure per capita.
From the CMDA,
Bristol, TN, August 4, 2014--The Christian Medical & Dental Associations (CMDA), the nation's largest faith-based association of healthcare professionals, today issued the following statement on the controversy surrounding bringing Dr. Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol, both suffering from Ebola, back to the U.S. for treatment.
"As a physician who has dealt with deadly epidemics in Africa where I served as a missionary and then as the first medical director for Samaritan's Purse, the risk of causing an Ebola epidemic by transporting these missionaries to the U.S. is so close to zero that it is incalculable," noted CMDA CEO Dr. David Stevens. "Unlike bird flu and other dangerous viruses, Ebola requires direct contact with bodily fluids from a patient to transmit the virus. It is not passed by coughing or casual contact, and every precaution has taken place."
Kent Brantly has been a member of CMDA since he started medical school where he was a dynamic student leader. He had a call to healthcare missions from a young age and participated in many short-term mission trips overseas. Last year at this time, he was at CMDA's headquarters in Bristol, Tennessee where Dr. Stevens and other staff helped train Dr. Brantly, his wife Amber and a group of other young professionals who were preparing to serve as new missionaries with Samaritan's Purse.
"Kent has been called a 'hero.' Of course he is in the sense of having courage and great strength of character, but he would tell you that he is just living the 'normal Christian life' that every Christian should live. He is simply a Christian disciple 'denying himself, taking up his cross and following Jesus' as Christians have done for millenniums (Matthew 16:24). He is simply laying down his life for others as Christ laid down his life for him," said Dr. Stevens.
Stevens, who personally dealt with the outbreak of AIDS in Africa and wiped out an epidemic of relapsing fever in Sudan, added, "Last week we trained 20 more young healthcare professionals and their spouses who are going all over the world to serve as missionaries. Two of them are going to the same hospital in Liberia where Kent and Nancy were infected. I challenged them saying, 'You will not live in fear of disease, suffering and even death if you die to self before you go.' That is not extraordinary; it's the normal Christian life that every Christian should live."
Dr. Stevens joined Karl and June on Moody Radio Chicago on Monday, August 4 to discuss this topic and help explain the low risk of the spread of Ebola in the U.S. You can listen to his live interview at www.cmda.org/ebola. To schedule an interview with Dr. Stevens, please contact VP for Communications Margie Shealy at communications@cmda.org or 423-844-1047. For more information about CMDA, please visit www.cmda.org.
