Lower bridge, ferry costs mean less of a barrier for people going off-Island for health care
Just leaving the province to get treatment came with a hefty price tag of $50 to cross the Confederation Bridge — a cost that added up quickly, given that she's been unable to work and has had to make the trip for the past 16 years.
MacFadyen has granulomatosis with polyangiitis, or GPA, which causes swelling in small blood vessels.
The bridge toll, along with the cost of gas and hotels, has meant a major financial strain for her family. She estimates she had to cross the Northumberland Strait to the mainland roughly 25 times a year.
The cost associated with travelling off-Island for health care eventually pushed MacFadyen's family into bankruptcy.
WATCH | Cheaper bridge and ferry trips will help people who have to leave P.E.I. for health care:
"Sometimes we didn't have the money to go across the bridge and that was a barrier to getting the proper health care," she said.
That toll to cross the bridge to New Brunswick will fall to $20 as of this Friday, following an announcement by Prime Minister Mark Carney this week. Fares for passengers, cars and commercial traffic on the ferry service between eastern P.E.I. and Nova Scotia will also go down by 50 per cent.
MacFadyen no longer has to cover the bridge toll herself thanks to Hope Air, an organization that provides financial support to Canadians who need to travel to access medical care.
While she said the toll reduction will make a difference for others like her who have to travel out of province for health care, she thinks the cost should be free for anyone receiving medical treatment that's not available to them in this province.
"If [treatment is] not available on the Island, then we have no other choice," MacFadyen said.
The P.E.I. government does offer some out-of-province travel supports to Islanders, depending on their income, to cover costs like flights, ferry passes, gas cards, bus tickets and meals.
In a statement to CBC News, the province said it gave out 1,420 bridge passes and 44 ferry passes last year to people travelling for health care.
'The number one side effect of cancer is debt'
Grappling with debt from health-care expenses impacts more than just those with rare conditions.
Heather Mulligan, the Canadian Cancer Society's senior manager of advocacy for Atlantic Canada, said the organization often hears from Islanders who say the financial support available to them is not enough.
"The number one side effect of cancer is debt," Mulligan said.
Many people living with cancer on the Island have no choice but to travel out of province to get the care they need. Mulligan said some patients go to off-Island appointments every month.
She said lowering the bridge toll will eliminate some of the barriers patients face when accessing medical care.
"Reducing the bridge fees and reducing the ferry fees not only is an affordability announcement, one that is meant to bolster tourism and interconnectedness, but it eliminates a financial barrier that some Islanders have to face when accessing an essential care like cancer care," Mulligan said.
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CNN
38 minutes ago
- CNN
Can You Lower Your Risk for Dementia? - Chasing Life with Dr. Sanjay Gupta - Podcast on CNN Podcasts
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Dr. Sanjay Gupta 00:01:06 'Alright, so does having type 2 diabetes affect cognitive decline in older adults? Well, the short answer, unfortunately, is yes. Studies find that diabetes can increase the odds of developing cognitive decline up to two times. A 2021 JAMA study following about 10,000 men and women found that those who had diabetes at age 70 had a higher likelihood of developing cognitive decline. So, you know, older adults with diabetes do have higher instances of dementia overall, Alzheimer's disease, and also something known as vascular dementia. And it has also been shown that the risk of cognitive decline in dementia is higher for those who develop diabetes at a younger age. So the earlier the age when you develop diabetes, the more likely you are to have cognitive decline again after age 70. Now, we don't know exactly why this is, but the connection appears to be pretty strong. So much so that some people have started calling Alzheimer's type 3 diabetes. 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Medscape
3 hours ago
- Medscape
Cognitive Impact From Dementia Risk Factors Greater in Women
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'Clinicians should familiarize themselves with the 14 identified modifiable risk factors, and if their patients have these risk factors, consider their sex and age, and try to target the behavior changes accordingly to minimize the impact on cognition and dementia risk,' Fitzhugh said. The findings were presented on July 28 at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference (AAIC) 2025. At Greater Risk It's well-known that women are at greater risk for dementia. The lifetime risk for Alzheimer's disease (AD) is 1 in 5 for women compared with 1 in 10 for men. Sex-specific factors such as pregnancy and menopause may contribute to this imbalance. But while many researchers tackle this issue from a biological perspective, Fitzhugh focuses on the effects of modifiable risk factors. She used the 2008 wave of the Health and Retirement study, an ongoing population-based study of a representative sample of American retirees and their spouses who complete questionnaire every 2 years (in 'waves'). After excluding anyone younger than 40 years and those without self-reported risk factor information, the study sample included 17,182 individuals. Fitzhugh concentrated on items included in the Lancet Report on Dementia Prevention. As reported by Medscape Medical News , 45% of dementia risk factors are potentially modifiable. Risk factors identified in the Lancet report include less education in early life (contributing 5% to risk); hearing loss (7%), elevated low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (7%), depression (3%), traumatic brain injury (3%), physical inactivity (2%), diabetes (2%), smoking (2%), hypertension (2%), obesity (1%), and excessive alcohol (1%) in midlife; and social isolation (5%), air pollution (3%), and vision loss (2%) in late life. Looking at prevalence, investigators found that six of the 14 risk factors were more common in women, including physical inactivity, depression, smoking, poor sleep, less education and poor vision (for example, glaucoma or cataracts). Only three risk factors were more common in men, including hearing loss, diabetes, and alcohol use. There was no difference in prevalence between men and women in high BMI, hypertension, and social isolation. Plotting Cognition The Health and Retirement Study also gathers data on global cognition (immediate recall, delayed recall, numeracy, etc.) using a 27-item scale. Fitzhugh separated mean cognitive scores for men and women and for three age groups (middle age: 40-59 years; middle to older age: 60-79 years; and oldest age: 80 years and over), then plotted risk factors in each group. The graphs she created illustrate the differences in cognitive performance between having and not having a risk factor for each sex. 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Medscape
3 hours ago
- Medscape
Surge in Deaths Involving Co-Use of Stimulants Plus Opioids
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