Canadians and their Medical Coverage

was hoping to get opinions from canadians on their universal health care.. the media here is useless and usually has an agenda to work..the sheeple in this country (states) call universal health care "socialism" and seem to be brainwashed that the current healthcare system is fine..it clearly is not..when obama was pushing his plan the insurance industry paid workers to protest and make noise and used the media to spread lies to convince americans that canadians wait 10 months for an mri. what is the truth is the coverage good? do you like it..i know your taxes are high to cover the plan, is it worth it?

no canadians?

While i am not Canadian, i do have a few friends who immigrated to MI from there. One of them is a nurse and moved to the states because "there are no good doctors". She went on to say that the socialized health care is driving the good doctors to the states to make money. I personally like the IDEA, the indians had it right, help your neighbor and he will help you.

a dog named chico said:

While i am not Canadian, i do have a few friends who immigrated to MI from there. One of them is a nurse and moved to the states because "there are no good doctors". She went on to say that the socialized health care is driving the good doctors to the states to make money. I personally like the IDEA, the indians had it right, help your neighbor and he will help you.

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what if my neighbor isnt a doctor?

my bf is a nurse near the Canadian border. She has a Canadian nurse on her floor that opted out of the health insurance provided by the hospital and stayed covered by Canadian health care. She got breast cancer, from the time of diagnosis to seeing the surgeon was 4 months. That's not care, that's murder.

Edit- Murder- I might have been a little harsh. It is substandard care.

Winter Woman said:

my bf is a nurse near the Canadian border. She has a Canadian nurse on her floor that opted out of the health insurance provided by the hospital and stayed covered by Canadian health care. She got breast cancer, from the time of diagnosis to seeing the surgeon was 4 months. That's not care, that's murder.

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whoa...I must be too high to read this...

Our healthcare system is far from perfect. Can I fairly say it is better than yours? No because I've never lived under yours. It looks better on paper......certainly more affordable to the average Joe. Less to do with the actual insurance industry than yours...Which alone is a good enough reason for me.

Do I recieve better care? Again can't really say. My wife and our children are all covered by external benefits through her employer over and above what Health Canada pays for. Drugs, Dental and Eye care are all covered by the benefits. All provided to her as an employee no charge. When we go to the Dr. for exams or any issue it is covered by Health Canada we pay nothing at the counter. But we also pay way more income tax......15% on the first 41 grand a year.....over 41 G's and we pay 22% of whatever income is over 41g.....then anything over 45 its 26% then anything over 128G its 29% gone from your pay...

On top of that we have to pay the Dr's directly for things like letters or forms filled out. The last time I checked...and I check pretty darn often we are not a communist country....Just as free as the good ol' US of A.
hope that helps

canuckgrow said:

Our healthcare system is far from perfect. Can I fairly say it is better than yours? No because I've never lived under yours. It looks better on paper......certainly more affordable to the average Joe. Less to do with the actual insurance industry than yours...Which alone is a good enough reason for me.

Do I recieve better care? Again can't really say. My wife and our children are all covered by external benefits through her employer over and above what Health Canada pays for. Drugs, Dental and Eye care are all covered by the benefits. All provided to her as an employee no charge. When we go to the Dr. for exams or any issue it is covered by Health Canada we pay nothing at the counter. But we also pay way more income tax......15% on the first 41 grand a year.....over 41 G's and we pay 22% of whatever income is over 41g.....then anything over 45 its 26% then anything over 128G its 29% gone from your pay...

On top of that we have to pay the Dr's directly for things like letters or forms filled out. The last time I checked...and I check pretty darn often we are not a communist country....Just as free as the good ol' US of A.
hope that helps

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i do not think those taxes are extreme, i would have had thought they were higher..not far off what we pay here in the states. sounds like it works fairly good.

The health care is great. Broken arm, waited for 5minutes got treatment didn't pay a dime. Our taxes I think are higher though. I was unlucky and ended up in a higher tax bracket (82K+) and I ended up paying roughly 38% tax. It may hurt some but I can write off all my fuel, food, clothes, tools, truck parts etc..

Sask420 said:

The health care is great. Broken arm, waited for 5minutes got treatment didn't pay a dime. Our taxes I think are higher though. I was unlucky and ended up in a higher tax bracket (82K+) and I ended up paying roughly 38% tax. It may hurt some but I can write off all my fuel, food, clothes, tools, truck parts etc..

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not in Canada you didn't pay 38% income tax.....You may have figured all of your taxes out to be 38%...but income tax doesn't go over 29%

it's pretty tight, I got my face rebuilt for free after a car wreck. it was fairly major reconstruction, fake orbital floor and cheek bone and had to be there a week or so

any idea how much this would of cost state side ?

^^^^^ Wouldn't even want to hazard a guess Wow.

canuckgrow said:

Our healthcare system is far from perfect. Can I fairly say it is better than yours? No because I've never lived under yours. It looks better on paper......certainly more affordable to the average Joe. Less to do with the actual insurance industry than yours...Which alone is a good enough reason for me.

Do I recieve better care? Again can't really say. My wife and our children are all covered by external benefits through her employer over and above what Health Canada pays for. Drugs, Dental and Eye care are all covered by the benefits. All provided to her as an employee no charge. When we go to the Dr. for exams or any issue it is covered by Health Canada we pay nothing at the counter. But we also pay way more income tax......15% on the first 41 grand a year.....over 41 G's and we pay 22% of whatever income is over 41g.....then anything over 45 its 26% then anything over 128G its 29% gone from your pay...

On top of that we have to pay the Dr's directly for things like letters or forms filled out. The last time I checked...and I check pretty darn often we are not a communist country....Just as free as the good ol' US of A.
hope that helps

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I agree with this. Though not perfect, I like knowing that if I break my arm, I don't need to expect a multiple thousand dollar bill in the mail. I just had a hernia operation. I was processed, and had the surgery in less than 2 months. So it's not always bad either. What was my cost ? $120 on medications, and my $55 a month premium. The medications can be claimed on my taxes as well.

In fact, with the amount of injuries I have had in my life, I would be broke and destitute if I lived south of the border. I would either not be able to afford treatment and suffer, or be in debt for such things as having a detached finger, burning the skin off my leg, broken nose x 8 or so, broken finger, sport concussions, EXTREME back injuries, hernia operations x 5......and the list goes on and on.

Let's just say I don't ride motorbikes or quads anymore, or go snowboarding, or water skiing. My body is shot, and I wouldn't even want to think about how much debt I would be in if I didn't live here, or how much pain I would still be in with nagging injuries because I couldn't afford proper treatment.

I personally love our imperfect system. It hasn't done me wrong yet. I don't mind paying high taxes, though it does seem like things are on a downward slope lately, and that is disappointing, especially when they raise taxes and fees often. But would I trade it for current system in the US ? Absolutely not.

@ colchester..would bankrupt a person here in the states if they were uninsured

canuckgrow said:

not in Canada you didn't pay 38% income tax.....You may have figured all of your taxes out to be 38%...but income tax doesn't go over 29%

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Yep. Maybe added with total income deductions including provincial tax.

From the Revenue Canada website

My step father also works for Revenue Canada and I believe he told me this before doing my taxes. I thought it was higher until he told me.

thanks for the facts boys, sounds like it works fairly well...here if you lose your job you are fucked...lose job lose insurance...and when you get another job (good luck with that) the scumbag insurance companies will not cover pre existing conditions..total garbage due to the greed by these dirty bastards..their lobbyists pay off these useless congressman and senators and call the shots...i hate it

Corso312 said:

thanks for the facts boys, sounds like it works fairly well...here if you lose your job you are fucked...lose job lose insurance...and when you get another job (good luck with that) the scumbag insurance companies will not cover pre existing conditions..total garabge

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I'm unemployed right now, but I receive over $800 every two weeks in Emplyoment Insurance.....in fact I just filed my report online a few minutes ago.

Though not perfect, Canada is definitely NOT as bad as some people portray it to be. Especially those that claim we are socialists/borederline commies. If this is socialism..........sign me up.

I think of Canada as a good blend between socialism and capitalism.

yeah..i have never bad mouthed our friendly neighbor to the north...if i did not have a felony i would move there..doubt i could get in...i heard bill maher on hbo a few months ago say something like this and it was kinda true but very funny... Say 100 Americans get together and order a 100 slice pizza. The pizza arrives and the first guy takes 80 slices. And if someone suggests, why don’t you just take 79 slices, that’s socialism!

We lived in the north country and the small hospital there was a teaching hospital. I was very, very sick and my parents signed a document letting the doctor use me in teaching the residents. I remember a private room and many young doctors looking at the machines and whatnot. But only the teaching doctor touched me.

The hospital bill was drastically reduced (by about 2/3), fees owed to the doctor was for out of hospital doctor visits and they were discounted. Something like that would really help if we would allow it.

My dad, also, told me that there was hospitalization insurance and doctors insurance, you could have both or just one, you weren't forced into both. If that was an option I'd have only hospitalization.

well if I lived in the USA I could have a baddass eye patch on my left eye (it would still be off center and useless) and my baddass scars on the right side of my face I'd be a bad looking motherfucker maybe a super villan even?