# Canadian Health Care - How Is It?



## VA Haymaker (Jul 1, 2014)

Speaking of healthcare, here in the US, we know what we've got, we know what we've been told about other country/types of health care systems.

Tell me about your healthcare system in Canada from annual physicals, sore throats to knee replacements, general surgery, heart, birth, etc.

What's the healthcare system like in Canada? A Canadian citizen, aside from taxes, what is the expected typical "co-pay" and or cost when seeing a Dr or having an operation? Is there one? Is health care access plentiful, or lots of waiting? How is the overall quality and would you recommend something like it south of your border for the Americans?

Just curious to hear from some Canadians regarding their healthcare.

This post is NOT intended to be a political who struck John thread. Just want to hear Canadian's experiences with their healthcare system.

Thanks!
Bill


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## hog987 (Apr 5, 2011)

The running joke is the healthcare system is great as long as you never have to use it. Its good for minor stuff like antibiotics for a sore throat. Just go to walkin clinic and get prescription. But you do need benifits to pay for drugs or you pay out of pocket. Wait times for surgery for something like knee replacement can be as soon as a few weeks or up to a few years. In general at least here in Alberta as time goes on the system gets worse for patient care. The system is too top heavy. The money for basic care needs does not always go where needed. The top brass waste money like no tomorrow on things like $100 per plate catered lunch for monthly meeting while nurses cant get new bed lifts to help patients


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## Palmettokat (Jul 10, 2017)

If I may add a couple of questions on the Canadian health care:

Does it vary from one Providence to another or is it the same country wide?

Does it limit how long you can be out of the Providence and keep the coverage active?

Are there supplement private insurance plans to the government coverage?

Thanks


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## TJ Hendren (May 12, 2017)

Maybe we ought to send AOC and Bernie up there for a looksee. Of course I'm not sure they have enough intelligence to notice.


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## slowzuki (Mar 8, 2011)

Varies province to province. Drugs are free while in hospital. Some provinces common drugs are free. No co pay.

In NB everything critical is fast but like mentioned joint replacement takes a while, 6-12 months wait. ER wait is triaged so the hordes of people wasting doctors time with colds at the ER instead of clinic will wait hours and hours.

Hospitals have a lot of elderly people awaiting placement in care homes as their families are out working in the west or can't cope with their needs.


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## r82230 (Mar 1, 2016)

slowzuki said:


> Hospitals have a lot of elderly people awaiting placement in care homes as their families are out working in the west or can't cope with their needs.


Is nursing home costs (long term care, dementia, etc.), covered by gov? Can you private pay nursing home costs and get placed faster (then switching to gov pay, when you are broke)?

Larry


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## hog987 (Apr 5, 2011)

There are a few certain federal laws that need to be followed for healthcare. Other than that each province runs their own system. 
For insurance in Alberta you can get blue cross or a number of different ones that are usually provided with your place of work. Dental, eyecare, chiropractic are not covered under Alberta health. Prescription drugs are not covered by Alberta health. Chemotherapy drugs are not covered for cancer patients but we keep getting more and more safe injection sites for drug users where they can get injected with free street drugs. 
Some Dr. abuse the system. They get paid by how many patients they see. So instead of fixing your problem in one or two visits. They keep giving your different things or drugs to try so you visit them 10-20 times instead.
We can choose our family Dr,( which there is a shortage of right now) but cant choose which specialists we see. Dont always have a choice we we get tests or imaging done. Sometimes it can be months wait time to get proper scans or tests done. To the point where you just suffer, get better or it becomes an emergency.


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## hog987 (Apr 5, 2011)

r82230 said:


> Is nursing home costs (long term care, dementia, etc.), covered by gov? Can you private pay nursing home costs and get placed faster (then switching to gov pay, when you are broke)?
> 
> Larry


In Alberta we have both private and government long term care(nursing home). The private care does cost a lot. It varies depending on level of care needed. Placement is usually not too long as long as they have room. But a bunch of places have 90%+ of their rooms filled and the only way a new room comes up is someone dies. The care varies depending on the place from poor to great.
The public long term( government) can be up to a 2 year waiting time for placement. Instead of weeks or a few months. You also dont get a choice of where you go. The care is actually really poor. In all honestly our prisoners get better care than the elderly in these places. If you have the funds you want to go to a private place.


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

hog987 said:


> Dont always have a choice we we get tests or imaging done. Sometimes it can be months wait time to get proper scans or tests done. To the point where you just suffer, get better or it becomes an emergency.


Well if it takes months to get a test in alot of cases they just as well shoot you because the disease may have progressed to far.This is the way I read it anyway.Am I correct? Like in a case of cancer.


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## r82230 (Mar 1, 2016)

hog987 said:


> The public long term( government) can be up to a 2 year waiting time for placement. Instead of weeks or a few months. You also dont get a choice of where you go. The care is actually really poor. In all honestly our prisoners get better care than the elderly in these places. If you have the funds you want to go to a private place.


All I can say is WOW!! Here in Michigan, the 5 star homes have a waiting list and run at like 99.9% capacity. You need to pay to hold bed if patient leaves for more than 24 hours (going to hospital for a surgery). And it doesn't matter if you are there on private pay or gov (Medicaid) pay. The 3 star and below places, there are beds always available. Here with private pay and Medicaid pay, you have side-by-side beds, but with the lower star rated, your care is suspect at best. Sounds the same as your situation, prisoner's getting better care.

I have a local 5 star place, that I know about it's patient mix is Medicaid paid (Gov, broke people) in the high 80's percentile. Usually just a little more than 10-11% are private pay patients. Presently, I believe the cost is around the $275+ a day (and it is running at the 99%+ capacity).

Larry


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## r82230 (Mar 1, 2016)

swmnhay said:


> Well if it takes months to get a test in alot of cases they just as well shoot you because the disease may have progressed to far.This is the way I read it anyway.Am I correct? Like in a case of cancer.


One way to 'manage' health care cost(s). There is a chance you die before you get there it appears.

Larry


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## slowzuki (Mar 8, 2011)

Its province to province but cancer diagnosis / testing no issue in NB/Que/NS/Ontario. Get you into treatment fast.

If you have a family history of bowel cancer for example they screen you annually.

The slow stuff to get sorted is usually chronic pain related, or hormone issues beyond basic thyroid. Here in NB if you go in family doc or clinic complaining of stuff the blood tests are done that day for a 5$ blood collection fee or you get a time to go to local hospital in about a week for non-critical routine check up stuff.

The hospitals in areas with population growth are usually slower to get appointments but if you're willing to drive an hour or two to a rural hospital or a city with declining population they usually have surplus capacity so you can walk in walk out.


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## slowzuki (Mar 8, 2011)

Some examples, coworker did something to his arm golfing a 18 months ago. He was 4 months getting into specialists, a few months getting MRI and scope etc done on the joint. Few more months and surgeon 4 hours drive away, etc.

Same coworker recently passed out while getting out of bed and hit his head. Went by ambulance, had cat scan or MRI or whatever that day, while in there his blood panel showed some heart issues, they did the test, same day found heart blockage, put in stents. Test showed some electrical oddities. Took a month to get scheduled for the test with stuff injected into heart while they are poking around inside it doing surgery on the electrical wiring. Slapped a little bluetooth heart monitor in there while at it to record next several months of heartbeats.

On the other end, to get help having a baby, there's a year long wait to see that specialist.


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## r82230 (Mar 1, 2016)

slowzuki said:


> On the other end, to get help having a baby, there's a year long wait to see that specialist.


My first take was man, babies show up in 9 months HERE and that's when most women need a little help, then I slapped myself, realizing you are most likely speaking about what we call fertility specialists.

Larry


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## slowzuki (Mar 8, 2011)

The gov assesses your income and either pay for all or a portion of the costs in public or private care facilities. Level of care required of course affects cost and placement time as they regulate staff ratios and training level etc.

If you have lots of money, you can get into private care homes faster but it seems more popular to hire care staff to keep you in your home.

Public generally wants to stay in their home so there are public and private care workers for this service. Again, depending on income they will help pay for this to keep you out of a hospital bed or care home bed. Right now population wise, there is a big slug of old people arriving at that age and they can't build enough capacity for the tax base we have to pay for all these old folks. Something like 90% of our health care costs here are for the group of people over 80 years old.



r82230 said:


> Is nursing home costs (long term care, dementia, etc.), covered by gov? Can you private pay nursing home costs and get placed faster (then switching to gov pay, when you are broke)?
> 
> Larry


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## slowzuki (Mar 8, 2011)

Lol, I'm in a province that losses most of its young people to provinces like Alberta, so right now I know the baby making and baby delivering services and even family doctors in Alberta are stretched to the max. Here in east its not bad, get excellent natal care although the push to get private (one patient per) rooms as the norm has reduced capacity of the maternity wards compared to say what the same unit did in the 1970s.



r82230 said:


> My first take was man, babies show up in 9 months HERE and that's when most women need a little help, then I slapped myself, realizing you are most likely speaking about what we call fertility specialists.
> 
> Larry


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## hog987 (Apr 5, 2011)

swmnhay said:


> Well if it takes months to get a test in alot of cases they just as well shoot you because the disease may have progressed to far.This is the way I read it anyway.Am I
> correct? Like in a case of cancer.


Not always the case but is sometimes true. Usually once they find cancer they are quick to act. But everyone knows someone who was diagnosed too late and ended up dying from cancer, like my great grandmother on my moms side. Just kept sending her home saying she had the stomach flu when infact she had stomach cancer. 
There is a running joke about this is how the government saves on healthcare costs. They delay diagnosis and treatment and have you die instead.


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## slowzuki (Mar 8, 2011)

I'll say here in NB, that isn't the case. In Que and NB both for 90+ year old family members, they do major heart surgery, joint replacements etc. Sometimes its a bit ridiculous, someone in 90's with stage 4 cancer getting a knee replacement while some 35 year old guy is waiting another year for his. They don't generally decline to provide care in our eastern provinces except, a big except, when you have health issues than mean you might die on the table.

A family member has history of her heart stopping during surgery now they won't touch her unless its absolutely critical surgery to save her life. They won't fuse her busted back for example, just give her opiates instead saying no doctor will risk it as they could lose license.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

swmnhay said:


> Well if it takes months to get a test in alot of cases they just as well shoot you because the disease may have progressed to far.This is the way I read it anyway.Am I correct? Like in a case of cancer.


Pretty much believe our VA operates on that system.


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

mlappin said:


> Pretty much believe our VA operates on that system.


Not here. Pretty responsive.

Regards, Mike


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## Palmettokat (Jul 10, 2017)

It is evident health care must be addressed in many area in many ways. I have said for a good while if you want to improve it get group of medical providers (docs and hospitals each), regulators, insurance companies or who covers the cost and public reps to each one tell how they can improve the system and what they need the others to do to improve it. In the US we must get handles on the law suits.


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