US v/s Canadian healthcare systems.. A call to Canadian ATS Members

Originally posted by denythestatusquo
My view on paying for health insurance is this: if I can easily get a quality job and afford to pay coverage then why should I complain? Especially if my standard of living is higher than it CURRENTLY is in Canada.

That is the catch. It's not just about you.

What about the millions that are without healthcare? When their family is sick and in need of immediate care, they may have to sit on the side and do nothing.

As I've said before, I take comfort in knowing that no Canadian would ever have to go through that.

My wife works for a travel insurance company up here in Canada. Most of the clientel are elderly people going to the U.S. to escape our winters. When a situation arises..(which many do, given the age of these people...) where they need medical attention....(medical attention which costs an exorbidant amount of money..), they simply negotiate with the hospital for a lower ammount payable. In most cases, roughly half the ammount that the hospital initially 'tried' to charge. Essentially, these people are insured for medical emergencies only the insurance companies here in Canada say to these hospitals...."WTF are you talking about trying to charge us THIS ammount????...are you frickin' nuts???....You are definately NOT worth what you are trying to charge...sorry."...low and behold, the price suddenly drops...substantially.

Hmmmmm...life IS a bitch, isn't it?

as well as a blanket coverage from the federal government. Shared costs.

A great source of information is available HERE

As to the actual coverage. Man it's good to have access to the basic services including basic dental in certain cases (welfare, disability, CPP) for lower income.

I don't know that it's the most fair however, depending on your province and their budget.

There is a lot of chatter here as to privitizing health care in British Columbia, as well as in Alberta (who's taken the lead in the privitization of many things once covered by the federal and provincial governments).

The costs for each province is also further affected by the number of low income earners, and federal payment recipients (welfare, PWD2, Pentions...).

There are a lot of other links on the page I linked above.

Personally, I think privitization is innevitable...sadly most jobs have such limited benefit packages...unless you're fortunate enough to work in the Civil sector or government sector.

I'll give another example of how the Canadian healthcare system saved a life, several times, without putting a family into bankruptcy. My family.

In less than two years, my step-father has faced numerous life-threatening problems after 70 years of good health.

The first was a emergency double bypass which had to be done 450 km from his home. After the double bypass came the prostate cancer. Once the cancer went into remission, the vertigo set in. Once the vertigo cleared up, the prostate cancer came back. After more treatment, the cancer went back into remission. Next came the severe anemia.

After having so many blood transfusions that it 'cured' his Hepatitis C, he is now on the mend. He won't be getting his payout for the Hep C anymore, but we can't really complain about that. So far *knocks on wood* there have been no new problems, and I hope it stays that way.

I have absolutely no clue how much that would have cost in the US, but I'm pretty sure he and my mother would have had to declare bankruptcy by the time this was over.

Thank you to all the Canadians who pay taxes for not letting my family face financial ruin.

Originally posted by Duzey
Thank you to all the Canadians who pay taxes for not letting my family face financial ruin.

Duze, Probably the best money I have spent.

My Mother had to undergo emergency back surgery in the US when they lived there and they're still paying for it (after 13 years).

They moved back to Canada to retire and thankfully haven't needed any further surgeries.

My father had to undergo several amputations as well as angeoplasty...his insurance and the Alberta MSP saved our arses as well. There's no way operations like this can be paid for in the US..unless you pay through the nose in insurance premiums.

My daughter was a preemie as well...in the US it costs over 800,000.00 to care for a preemie the size my daughter was (1 LB 6 oz and a three month hospital stay - not to mention my month of bedrest prior to delivery)...800,000 bucks??? Man we'd be living in a cardboard box if we had to pay that...

Privatizatin is scary, I think all Canadians would rather keep the existing system with maybe a few tweaks here and there...the higher taxes are definintely worth it.

I'm glad whatever few tax dollars I have contributed -and will contribute- have helped people like Duzey and JG. 've told you all my story.

As much as I love our healthcare system, I have an issue with the non-emergency care. To be frank, it leaves much to be desired. like I said, my story speaks for itself. If I had any amount of money, I probably would have tried to go the private route for my shoulder, more so than I did.

I've been working out almsot every day, all week, trying to get in shape for the forces but my major stumbling block is, of course, my upper body and back. because of the incorrect diagnosis, it healed funny and I never knew. I came back half a year later to find this out. I had tow options- put my name on a waiting list for shoulder surgery, which would have meant waiting over a year for a REFERAL, much less the actual surgery, or try to fix it via physio. If I did physio for eight months, I would be okay, but not 100%. Of course, the hospital physio waiting list was six months...

So I went to a private doctor, paid out my studenty ass for a few months, and gave up, largely broke. In fact, entirely broke. 0$ to my name. And now I'm paying for it- my career prospects are starting to look mighty skanky, especially if I take a shoulder injury in Basic Military Qualification.

DE