If you live in Canada, how does your health care system work? Do you pay for it? We sure need help in the US.?

Question

Is it a good system? Tell me how it works...Hubby and I have a debate going...........Thank you

Answer 1

Others have explained - or cut and pasted explanations of how the health care system works in Canada. I just want to give you my impressions as a Canadian who now lives overseas. As a Canadian citizen, I have never had to pay for any medical expense. All Canadians take this for granted and most love to complain and criticize the system. However, for those of us who have lived elsewhere we realize the value and compassion of our Canadian system. Living in Singapore I had to have a surgical operation. As it happened, it was done at a hospital managed by an American group. Care was great (which as a Canadian I'd expect anyway) but when presented with the bill I was shocked! It suddenly hit me that I had never seen a bill after a doctors visit or hospital visit. This bill, for an standard operation and a few days recovery time was around $10,000 !!
As an expat I have global health insurance but still - I was shocked and I wondered how the average family in the US can cope with unexpected illnesses. All Canadians love to sit in their lazy boy recliners and tell stories of how they've heard of Americans loosing their houses when they get sick.
Bus loads of US pensioners coming over the border to buy a years worth of prescriptions must tell you something. To be honest, I can't understand how the American public has put up with the situation the way it is. I now work for an American company although based overseas. The cost of my family health insurance is $1300 per month !!! When I investigated the cost (because I couldn't believe it was so high) I found that if I excluded the USA as a country of coverage the premium would drop to about $585 per month - thats for global coverage including evacuation insurance etc everywhere in the world except the USA - that tells you that prices are completely out of control in the US where healthcare is concerned. Yes, there are higher taxes in Canada...but not that much higher - I've done the math and Canadians have a much better deal. In the end....what is more important than your health?
Interesting.

Answer 2

The health care system in Canada has both pluses and minuses. The best thing about it is the universal coverage. No Canadian is without health care coverage. All basic health care costs, including visits to the doctor, procedures like MRIs and catscans, hospital stays, etc. are "free" (covered by us taxpayers). So, when I had my gall bladder removed a few years back, I didn't pay a penny. The down side is that there are often long waits for non-emergency procedures. My mother-in-law waited a year for hip-replacement surgery. There is a move toward a "two-tier" approach in Canada and I suspect it is on the way. This would allow the development of private medical providers - so that people who have money could, for example, go to the private facility and get a hip replacement a lot quicker. There are strong feelings about this, with concerns that a private system would draw medical personnel away from the public system (physicians and nurses are hard to recruit in certain areas of Canada). The reality is that there is already a two-tier system. The top tier is going to the States or other countries like India and paying for quicker service. That's great for people with money who need relatively inexpensive procedures. But it doesn't work for extremely expensive procedures (e.g. a liver transplant) or long term hospital stays (e.g. extremely low birth-weight babies)> In the U.S. (I lived there) if you don't have good insurance coverage, those things will bankrupt you. That wouldn't happen in Canada. I guess you have to think about whether you want a health care system that will provide excellent care for some and no care for others (like the U.S.) or pretty good care for almost everyone (like Canada). As much as I like to complain about health care and high taxes, I prefer the Canadian system.

Answer 3

Not everything is covered, it depends on your employer as well. Prescription drugs are covered if you have a drug plan through your employer, which may be 80 or 90 or even 100% coverage. Also your employer may have coverage that enables you to have private room coverage for hospital stays. Also, some cancer drugs are not approved by the medical field therefore if you are eligible for them, you must pay for them and have them administered at a private clinic. Eye exams are no longer covered for adults, nor is chiropractic care covered, but you can claim this through some employer coverages.

Answer 4

We do not have to pay for doctors visits or surgery unless it is cosmedic .......... we do not get a private room if we have to stay in the hospital we share a room with 3 others.


How Health Care Services are Delivered
Canada's publicly funded health care system is best described as an interlocking set of ten provincial and three territorial health insurance plans. Known to Canadians as "medicare," the system provides access to universal, comprehensive coverage for medically necessary hospital and physician services. These services are administered and delivered by the provincial and territorial (i.e., state or regional) governments, and are provided free of charge. The provincial and territorial governments fund health care services with assistance from the federal (i.e., national) government.

In order to receive their full allocation of federal funding for health care, the provincial and territorial health insurance plans must meet five criteria -- comprehensiveness, universality, portability, accessibility and public administration -- that are provided in the federal government's Canada Health Act. In addition to setting and administering the Canada Health Act and providing funding, the federal government provides direct delivery of health care services to specific groups (e.g., First Nations people living on reserves; Inuit; serving members of the Canadian Forces and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police; eligible veterans). Many other organizations and groups, including health professional associations and accreditation, education, research and voluntary organizations, contribute to health care in Canada.

The responsibility for Aboriginal (First Nations people and Inuit) health services is shared by the federal, provincial and territorial governments, and Aboriginal organizations. The responsibility for public health is also shared. The federal Public Health Agency of Canada acts as a focal point for disease prevention and control, and for emergency response to infectious diseases; however public health services are generally delivered at the provincial/ territorial and local levels.

Answer 5

I don't have to pay for things like doctor's visits, but here in Alberta we do have to pay a health care premium. I pay $193 every 3 months, which covers my AB health costs and my Blue Cross insurance coverage. My insurance pays for things like ambulance rides, semi-private hospital rooms, and a portion of prescriptions, dental and eye care.

Answer 6

The Canadian well being care equipment isn't suitable.. besides the indisputable fact that this is head and shoulders above the mess the U.S. calls well being Care. maximum international places interior the worldwide have the comparable equipment as Canada and that they seem to get alongside. that's the U.S. who've people who can not get or pay for well being care.

Answer 7

All essential medical services are covered (we are taxed a lot) and then all supplementary service (prescriptions, glasses private hospital room etc) are paid for by my employer (not always the norm)

Answer 8

in canada we dont pay for certian things..we will neevr pay for check ups, physicals, precerption pills or anything else the doctor prescribes..if your doctor prescribes it you ge tit for free.pretty nice..but our taxes do run pretty high becuase of that..like it 14% tax on everything over $5