Words You Won't Hear in Canadian Health Care

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

Words you'll never hear in the Canadian health care system

1. "Out of network"

There are no "networks" in Canada. Doctors and hospitals are not affiliated with private insurance companies. Doctors are private business entities and hospitals are usually run by non-profit boards or regional health associations.

2. "COBRA"

Health coverage is NOT tied to your place of employment in any way. So any COBRA-like scheme is unnecessary.

3. "Co-Pay"

The government pays 100% of basic care, 100% of the time. Drugs are not covered, but are subsidized by government to a point. And because of mass buys, discounts are obtained from the drug companies. That's why our prices are so much lower. Most employers offer a drug plan that pays for 100% of drug cost coverage.

4. "monthly premium\deductible"

Wazzat? We don't consider our health to be the same as our possessions.

5. "waiting for approval"

Doctors are the sole decision makers for health care. NOBODY influences or delays their decisions, warns them of costs or prevents them from giving treatment for any reason.

6. "Government interference"

The provincial government in each province PAYS for whatever services doctors provide. No questions asked. Unless the procedure is experimental, not medically necessary or unwarranted, doctors cannot deny basic care - by law.

7. "Health insurance lobby"

There are NO insurance companies for basic care, only companies for providing insurance for travelers. No money to be made here.

8. "bureaucracy"

When we visit a hospital or doctor's office, we walk in, get treated, walk out. No "applications", "registrations" or any other kind of paperwork is required. We NEVER have to talk to a single "government official" or wait for a "judgment".

9. "PRE-EXISTING CONDITION"

This is such a foreign concept to us. A Canadian's usual reaction to the explanation of this term is astonishment.

10. "rescission"

Your health insurance won't be canceled when you need it most, i.e., when you get sick. That's the whole point of having insurance, isn't it?

11. "individual rates"

There are no individual rates based on your age or medical status. The premium for everyone in a provincial plan is the same.

12. "uninsurable"

No one is uninsured or uninsurable. Everyone is covered.

13. "profit"

There's no private insurance companies offering coverage for primary medical care, so there's no question of profit, no corporate bottom lines to incentivize screwing people out of the medical care they need.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/7/2...ian-Health-Care

So we've established that many of these are not true.

[HAL 9000 96]

The funds are removed as taxes from salaries at the employer level and are on a sliding scale. Quite minimal, actually. You may opt in to supplemental coverage or not, depending on whether your spouse/partner has coverage also. It is usually within your best interests to opt in as the amount is negligible. Some plans are better than others so if there are ceilings on one plan you would claim the additional expenses up to the ceiling and then claim the remainder on the other plan. Medical expenses above and beyond the amounts covered by the healthcare plans can be claimed as a deductible expense at tax time.

Yeah I just read that... 14%. A real bargain.

She'll have to chime in here, but I think that Treble may have been referring to the combined provincial sales tax (PST) and goods & services tax (GST) for the Province of Ontario. Sometimes both are applied on a sale, sometimes only one. And sometimes neither one. Each Province sets their own scale, much like each State in the US. These taxes are not specifically targeted for healthcare. Just a portion of tax revenue goes toward healthcare..... the rest is distributed to education, public housing, parks, transportation, etc. I honestly don't have any personal knowledge what percentage of someone's income is solely dedicated towards the funding of healthcare. I would need to do a bit of research to find those numbers. I do know, however, that it was relatively insignificant to me as attested by the fact that I did not notice, nor complain, how much was being collected or spent. Nor did it bother me, nor anyone else, that our taxes were being used to care for those in need. It was just the right thing to do. And my employer-provided supplemental care was just pennies on the dollar. I'm going to guesstimate it was about .04 cents. In addition to the outstanding supplemental healthcare I received, I was covered at 100% of my salary for a period of 132 sick days per annum. For any unlimited periods beyond that it would have dropped to 75%. I am fortunate enough not to have required any of that time. In addition to the aforementioned, I received 7 weeks fully paid vacation days per annum, not including the 10 statutory holidays mandated by the Ontario Ministry of Labour. I sometimes think I was crazy to move here.

Amazing.

So it really does look like its a sour grapes fearfest in the naysayer room.

[Danno 1,228]

People that complain about paying for someone's health care in the US are already doing that in medicare, medicade and the military and their dependants.

how about if they don't have health care, they have to join the military?

Yeah let's make 40 million people the military doesn't want part of the military. Let's bust that pension fund wide open.

Did you deduct Illegals from the 40 mil.. or those who would not buy insurance if it was more than the cost of a six-pack?

wonder what the REAL number is?

[HYENA 4]

"Americans have ideological blinders about 4,000 miles tall and cannot see that something with the word 'government' in it could be more efficient than something without government in it.''

Not Americans, just dumb as doornails Republicans.

Republicans and Democrats=satanists!