Emergency Rooms in Crisis

Hospital emergency rooms all across the United States are in crisis, according to a National Public Radio segment aired on June 15, 2006. In many overcrowded emergency rooms, sick and injured people not in imminent danger of death may sometimes await treatment for hours – or even days. What is the cause of this problem, and what should you be doing to prepare for a health emergency?

Millions of Americans do not have health insurance. Since treatment can be expensive, many avoid preventive health care and only seek help when a worsening medical condition becomes so severe that they must go to the hospital. Since hospital beds in general care facilities are almost always full, patients fill the overcrowded emergency rooms. In those emergency rooms, first priority goes to those with life-threatening conditions. Patients who are in pain, but not in danger of death, must wait until the more critical cases are helped.

Patients enduring the long waits are packed into rooms with others who have a myriad of undiagnosed health problems. People who come to the emergency room seeking treatment for one ailment may contract new ailments while they wait!

No matter what precautions we take, we may not be able to avoid a visit to the emergency room. However, we can take steps to increase our resistance to illness. We can make sure that we get enough exercise and sleep. We can maintain a healthful diet, including an abundance of fruits and vegetables and clean water. We can avoid obviously dangerous activities that might lead to bodily injury. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!

As the U.S. health care system comes ever closer to collapsing under the weight of supply (more and more patients without health insurance) and demand (increasing disease epidemics, and even pandemics), we must remember that our Creator offers us protection – if we will do our part: "If you diligently heed the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the Lord who heals you" (Exodus 15:26).

Tomorrow's World presenter and Editor-in-chief Roderick C. Meredith has for many years been warning of an impending health care crisis in the U.S. and around the world. "The Bible shows us that a day is coming when massive disease epidemics will ravage our world. Doctors and hospitals will be overwhelmed with the sick and dying. Those who have not learned to trust God will have nowhere to turn. But if you learn today to trust and obey God, you can be blessed perhaps even more than you realize!" This is a quote from his booklet, Does God Heal Today?, which you can read online or order at no charge from the Order Free section of this website.

If you do become sick or injured, seek God early! Jesus Christ's ministry is here to help His people. "Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven" (James 5:14-15). The Apostle Paul sent anointed cloths to those he could not visit personally. "Now God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or aprons were brought from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out of them" (Acts 19:11-12). If you are seeking God, and you truly trust Him for the healing of your infirmities, please e-mail us your request for an anointed cloth, and we will mail one to you free of charge.

We have entered the biblically prophesied "end days," and these evil times will only grow worse if our peoples stiffen their necks against God's correction (Leviticus 26:14-46). However, you personally can escape the catastrophic punishments that are coming. "Seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked [those not keeping God's commandments] forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord and He will have mercy on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon" (Isaiah 55:6-7). Our booklet, The Ten Commandments, is also available for you to read online or download, and you may also Order Free your own personal copy at no charge.