Health Care Costs

Thanks for those response from our Canadian members.......

How is this healthcare PAID for. Taxes? At what rate.







My tax rate is roughly 10% to Federal and 10% to State.
My healthcare is free (don't pay a monthly premium) and I have small co-pay for prescriptions.

BUT that is because I don't use ACA (Obamacare). IF I did it would cost be between $240/month for Bronze Plan (basic....high deductibles) to $500/month for Gold Plan.

I am a US Veteran and have medical thru the VA (Veterans Administration).

Local clinic for Primary Doctor....routine medical/lab
VA Hospital for procedures/surgery/emergency.
The VA does have some issues........especially those VA facilities that are where the snowbirds come, many of which are US Veterans.

I personally have had nothing but top notch care via the VA. Even when we FTd for 7 yrs. Used VA Facilities across USA....all with good results and in a timely manner.

Only recently have had appointment scheduling issues/delays which were fine prior to VA scandal.

Healthcare will always be high cost..........whether single payer system, current system or old way (which is why new system ACA---Obamacare was implemented----high cost of old system.....new system would save monies).
All pie in the sky hype.

Old-Biscuit wrote:
Thanks for those response from our Canadian members.......

How is this healthcare PAID for. Taxes? At what rate.







My tax rate is roughly 10% to Federal and 10% to State.
My healthcare is free (don't pay a monthly premium) and I have small co-pay for prescriptions.

BUT that is because I don't use ACA (Obamacare). IF I did it would cost be between $240/month for Bronze Plan (basic....high deductibles) to $500/month for Gold Plan.

I am a US Veteran and have medical thru the VA (Veterans Administration).

Local clinic for Primary Doctor....routine medical/lab
VA Hospital for procedures/surgery/emergency.
The VA does have some issues........especially those VA facilities that are where the snowbirds come, many of which are US Veterans.

I personally have had nothing but top notch care via the VA. Even when we FTd for 7 yrs. Used VA Facilities across USA....all with good results and in a timely manner.

Only recently have had appointment scheduling issues/delays which were fine prior to VA scandal.

Healthcare will always be high cost..........whether single payer system, current system or old way (which is why new system ACA---Obamacare was implemented----high cost of old system.....new system would save monies).
All pie in the sky hype.

The Canadian Health Care system is funded by taxes. Generally speaking Canadians pay higher taxes than Americans but it is not quite as straight forward as that as it depends a lot on your income bracket. Googling your question will bring up a lot of answers to your question including some that would argue there is little difference between the two depending on the individuals circumstances. Hope that helps.

Dutch_12078 wrote:
I've noted many times over the years, that the large medical clinics covering a variety of specialties that have sprung up along NY's northern border always seem to have predominantly Canadian licensed cars in the usually near full parking lots. I wonder why...

Well, Canada is a free country and citizens can choose to get their health care wherever they want. If you are on a waiting list and have money to spend many will seek treatment or tests abroad. It's all tax deductible. :). Interesting thing though, we see the same thing in cities close to the border up here, eg, Americans getting procedures done up here. I have no idea of the dynamic of these situations though. Elective procedures, anxious to get it done (that would probably be a guy like me although I think I would choose Spain or Thailand as the scenery is cooler while I'm convalescing.

We have only had a few dealings with the American health care system. Our travellers insurance covered most and Health Canada picked up the rest. Service and treatment were excellent, but gotta say, they wanted to do a whole whack of tests literally in the tens of thousands of dollars of which we politely declined as we felt there was dollar signs hanging over our heads. Turned out to be something minor and who knows, maybe the tests were standard procedure. I'm not a doctor, who knows.
Again. JMHO

What I mostly dislike about the US health care system is the enormous cost of drugs compared to the rest of the world. I take a biologic injectable drug that I recently received a refill for a three month supply. The cost paid by the insurance company was $18,636.10, my cost was $10. I am so grateful that I work for a large company with great benefits, but these kind of charges are not sustainable.

My guess is that in Canada and Europe that this drug would be a third of the price and other countries probably less than that. I'm glad the drug is available and it works great, but it's been on the market for over 10 years and I'm sure they got their development costs back and then several billion dollars more so why the high price?

Ok, my rant is over.

Donnoh wrote:
What I mostly dislike about the US health care system is the enormous cost of drugs compared to the rest of the world. I take a biologic injectable drug that I recently received a refill for a three month supply. The cost paid by the insurance company was $18,636.10, my cost was $10. I am so grateful that I work for a large company with great benefits, but these kind of charges are not sustainable.

My guess is that in Canada and Europe that this drug would be a third of the price and other countries probably less than that. I'm glad the drug is available and it works great, but it's been on the market for over 10 years and I'm sure they got their development costs back and then several billion dollars more so why the high price?

Ok, my rant is over.

For every successful drug or medication there are many more unsuccessful ones. So part of the profits from successful drugs pay for the costs of the bad ones.

In the US, I was on a waiting list for an MRI for 12 months. Finally got it this summer -- for one knee. Insurance denied the second (worse) knee.

Based on the MRI, doc prescribed PT. Insurance denied it.

Waiting time in ER's or urgent care, IME, is usually about 4 hours if you are on a stretcher but not having a heart attack.

John & Angela wrote:

Dutch_12078 wrote:
I've noted many times over the years, that the large medical clinics covering a variety of specialties that have sprung up along NY's northern border always seem to have predominantly Canadian licensed cars in the usually near full parking lots. I wonder why...

Well, Canada is a free country and citizens can choose to get their health care wherever they want. If you are on a waiting list and have money to spend many will seek treatment or tests abroad. It's all tax deductible. :). Interesting thing though, we see the same thing in cities close to the border up here, eg, Americans getting procedures done up here. I have no idea of the dynamic of these situations though. Elective procedures, anxious to get it done (that would probably be a guy like me although I think I would choose Spain or Thailand as the scenery is cooler while I'm convalescing.

We have only had a few dealings with the American health care system. Our travellers insurance covered most and Health Canada picked up the rest. Service and treatment were excellent, but gotta say, they wanted to do a whole whack of tests literally in the tens of thousands of dollars of which we politely declined as we felt there was dollar signs hanging over our heads. Turned out to be something minor and who knows, maybe the tests were standard procedure. I'm not a doctor, who knows.
Again. JMHO

Thanks, John, that's always had me wondering if it was the speed of services that brought people over the border for care, or what else the attraction might be.

I have known many US folks who go to Canada or Mexico for health care -- generally prescriptions in Canada, dental care in Mexico.

My Canadian friends sometimes visit or commute to the US, but never for health care.

Naio wrote:
In the US, I was on a waiting list for an MRI for 12 months. Finally got it this summer -- for one knee. Insurance denied the second (worse) knee.

Based on the MRI, doc prescribed PT. Insurance denied it.

Waiting time in ER's or urgent care, IME, is usually about 4 hours if you are on a stretcher but not having a heart attack.

I don't know where you're located in the US, but my wife and I have never waited more than about 10 days for a non-urgent MRI. ER waits at the hospitals near our upstate NY cottage run in the 30 minute max range most of the time. According to the CDC, the average wait time across all US ER's is just under an hour.

Health Insurance Companies are not losing money. Three years ago I was contacted by a Corporation, in Louisville for a position.
I'm sure it was due to expected increase in income not loss of.
Health Insurance companies were in on construction, of Obama Care.
As far as uninsured swelling the roles I don't know. kids lost jobs, home, cars everything.
Applied for health coverage. Though no income but were told they did not qualify for subsidies. Had already made application though and expected over 400.00 premium notice. Apparently it fell through.
ACA is a mess and always will be.
It is designed as a taxation and control tool.
Surprised alarmed it was passed.