I'm a Canadian who owes tens of thousands because I had an emergency operation in a different province (BC) from where I have my health card (Ontario).
Curious. It seems either Canadian healthcare isn't the panacea we Americans think it is or there a number of Canadians who post here that don't know about their plans.
My thought is the situation is analogous to each US state and their safety net medical programs. Means based? Is this correct?
As far as I can tell (some reading, some 2nd-hand stories) Canadian healthcare is not a good model at all. It may be better than the US, but that's faint praise. I'd look to the French, Swiss, or Scandinavian systems for better models.
I'm pretty sure OHIP will cover your health expenses, but at the Ontario-based care rates.. You just have to submit receipts to OHIP. Everything extra would be out of pocket, and I see how that could be pricey.
I lived in Canada for 10 years. I left precisely because of the awful healthcare being denied my son, despite laws stating to the contrary. My son suffers because so-called medical professionals sat on his case (Autism) for more than a year, with excuse after excuse, problem after problem. Some of the people blamed budget issues, others lied, others through sheer incompetence. I'm not exaggerating. There is nothing that will piss you off more than being lied to by multiple people from one of Montreal's "leading" children's hospitals.
My wife is Canadian. She was just as fearful hearing the stories, and loved Canada's health care. Until we needed it, and it failed our son.
He got more help in the first 2 weeks here in Pennsylvania then he got in Canada after more than a year of fighting to get every bit of care he could get. Do you know what it was like being told of the additional challenges he would face because he didn't get help when he was first diagnosed (1 1/2 years). Now my second son is getting tested, as he might be autistic as well. But the process is massively different. He will do much better, and the system is already working for him. The cost to us? Nothing. Not a dime, and not because I have insurance. It's provided, by the state. I pay less now then I was paying before for my health care. Sorry, but the taxes in Quebec are steep, and everything gets taxed.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: it was nothing more than child abuse. My son suffered because the system failed him willingly. Knowingly. They knowingly harmed him, and others like him (I kid you not, the government mandated what effectively is abuse).
If you choose to have children in Quebec, good luck. If they have special needs, flee. Do not wait and try to work with the system. Leave as soon as you can. Do not wait. I wish someone had told me that.
Edit: At the time (and I imagine it's still the case) the law required he be given help within 3 months. This couldn't happen, because of budget issues we were told. These budget issues were set by the government, in part, because they don't believe in science. The politicians voted to limit the budget for autism cases to, iirc, around $20 million. This is despite the fact that all the research points to early intervention being critical. If he'd gotten help at 1 1/2 years old, or at least within the time dictated by the law, he would be far more along then he is now.
So no. No respect for a government that places government mandated culture ahead of the health and well being of its citizenry.
Canada is a single-payer health care system. A common problem with single-payer health care systems is access to specialty care. It is indeed tragic to care for someone you know is sick while being stuck in multi-week delays waiting for a doctor who can actually help.
It's also true that this is not one of America's big problems. Now, our specialists will bankrupt you, that's true, but you will actually get to see them pretty quickly.
Like Switzerland's system, the PPACA guaranteed-issue/mandatory-coverage system is potentially a best-of-both-worlds solution. The market for health insurance stays private, modulo federal (contentious, bureaucratic definitions of "minimum care" to qualify plans), but consumer costs are predictable.
> It is indeed tragic to care for someone you know is sick while being stuck in multi-week delays waiting for a doctor who can actually help.
It's not even waiting that is the problem. The quality is down right shoddy at best. Doctors flat out lied to us. We had doctors recommending committing our son to a home because "you can get on with your life." At one point, we had our son get approved after waiting 6 months to get into a special program that would help him. That was a wonderful day.
That afternoon, I shit you not, we get a call again from the same place, and they say "Oh, I'm sorry, we can't take him. He has autism, and we don't take children with autism."
I understand their are problems with the US system. I'm not blind to the issues. But people like to prop up Canada's system as something that works.
It was child abuse. It's hard to explain. I firmly believe that Quebec should shut down it's autism support, and stop pretending to care. At least then parents will know they had better leave. Every day makes a difference. If I'd known earlier, if I hadn't waited...
Years. Years of waiting. A system that requires that is a failure, pitiful, evil system.
I'm Canadian but lets be realistic, there are many things that would cause serious financial hardship due to medical costs in Canada. A friend of mine right now is suffering through intense pain from her teeth that aren't being fixed because she doesn't have money/insurance. She's deciding between healthcare and money.
You can also lose your life on a waiting list in Canada. Not much purpose in having $23K in the bank but being dead.
For sure you're not going to get a $23K bill for a bug bite but you will pay $3000/month for chemo, etc. Lots of things aren't covered by medicare, and they're quite expensive. Canada is more like a $23K bill for getting cancer, or other long term/terminal illnesses.
Edit: OP added a ninja-edit to his comment that included the part about teeth-pain... as my link explains, non-emergency dentalcare is not covered by default.
Yes, I'm aware of PharmaCare. Sure, they theoretically cover insulin; but if you read the fine print about which insulins they cover, it's not so helpful.
An example of their craziness: They cover insulin pumps for children under 18, but they don't cover the types of insulin which work in insulin pumps.
You linked to a provincial health service for B.C. residents. That's not Canadian coverage and I don't see where it says that medication is covered.
Most citizens in Canada don't have free (or reduced cost) medication unless they are below the poverty line.
I came out of the hospital with an $800/month medication bill after a diagnosis of colitis, after missing 2 months of work being bed-ridden, while self-employed with no personal health insurance.
In the USA (don't have stats for Canada) there were 4 billion medication prescriptions written by doctors in the USA... in 2011 alone. That equals 13.3 per person (w/ 300 million population) and around $4 billion dollars. Most of those medication bills go to people will serious chronic illnesses and can easily cost >$1000/month.
The effect of paying for medication on a persons financial stability can't be discredited in this discussion.
> You linked to a provincial health service for B.C. residents. That's not Canadian coverage and I don't see where it says that medication is covered.
Your profile says your in Toronto did you recently move from the states? The Canadian constitution divided healthcare into a the provincial area of responsibility.[1]
> Most citizens in Canada don't have free (or reduced cost) medication unless they are below the poverty line.
Might not appear so to you but most are a reduced price. Relevant quote "A Canadian law authorizes a review board to order a price reduction whenever the price of a drug exceeds the median of the prices in six European countries plus the United States."[2]
I think you've misread my comment. I said prescription medication is not covered by Canadian healthcare, except for some provincial policies which cover some low-income families.
Price control for medication != free medication for Canadians or the removal of the burden of paying for medication for people with a serious health condition, which can still be significant. Which was the original point of the OP (in addition to the cost of dental work).
Relevant reading: http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/article/2012/07/12/how-i-lost-...