Cheaper healthcare in Canada?

[Caladan 19]

Deadpool, sorry you had a bad experience - but you and I both know that you are comparing apples and oranges here.

You are not covered by a provincial plan in Canada yet, therefore you are comparing the cost for going to the Dr. in Canada with zero health insurance coverage to going to a Dr. in the U.S. with health insurance.

As for the drugs, the doctor should have asked you if you have drug coverage and if not he should have offered a generic - much cheaper (for the antibiotics).

I really am sorry you are having a hard time.

This is a good point. Hey, guess what, if I'm not covered in the U.S., health care costs come out of pocket, too! That wouldn't prove anything about an American insurance plan, and it would be bad to take it as an indictment of the Canadian health plan when one isn't on the plan.

Deadpool, sorry you're having a rough time. Things will look up soon.

[thetreble 19]

I understand. I had an experience once where I was extremely sick with laryngitis. I had an outrageous fever and got up to walk myself to the doctors as soon as they opened the next morning. In -40 degree whether I was sweating all the way down my mile walk to the doctor (I didn't have a car when I wasd a student)

any ways, I get there and I'm presumably the most sick person in the room. In fact, I'm so ill with fever and lack of sleep that I'm starting to hallucinate a little bit..you know..just generally doze off and not know where you are. I was completely weak and could hardly stand...and I ended up falling asleep.

NO ONE woke me up to see the doctor. an hour later I woke up to see that more patients had come in, in the mean time, and all were being taken in front of me.

But that is just one experience I have had with urgent care in Canada.

I didn't catch what you have besides asthma, deadpool. Unless the asthma is what is causing you to hurt so bad. That must be so frustrating. Also, it has cost you so much to move to Canada. What has made up the $35K in expenses?

[DeadPoolX 9]

I understand. I had an experience once where I was extremely sick with laryngitis. I had an outrageous fever and got up to walk myself to the doctors as soon as they opened the next morning. In -40 degree whether I was sweating all the way down my mile walk to the doctor (I didn't have a car when I wasd a student)

any ways, I get there and I'm presumably the most sick person in the room. In fact, I'm so ill with fever and lack of sleep that I'm starting to hallucinate a little bit..you know..just generally doze off and not know where you are. I was completely weak and could hardly stand...and I ended up falling asleep.

NO ONE woke me up to see the doctor. an hour later I woke up to see that more patients had come in, in the mean time, and all were being taken in front of me.

But that is just one experience I have had with urgent care in Canada.

I didn't catch what you have besides asthma, deadpool. Unless the asthma is what is causing you to hurt so bad. That must be so frustrating. Also, it has cost you so much to move to Canada. What has made up the $35K in expenses?

I have a severe infection that's effected my lymph nodes and spread throughout my body. I'm on antibiotics, but those take a little while to work. If I didn't have that, perhaps I would've been more tolerant in my experience.

As for the $35K, it involved everything from moving up to Canada, moving to BC from Alberta, housing expenses, power bills, cell phone plans, Internet connection, furniture costs, car rentals, food and clothing, and more. Plus I've lost a ton of money due to the stock market. I've lost about $15K that way, without touching a cent in my Fidelity account. I've recently had to move some money from there, which meant selling some stock at an abysmal price and getting a relatively low amount for what I sold. However, I need the extra money.

Interestingly enough, my dad told me that he'd help out with expenses if things got exceptionally tight, but when I brought up the subject, he told me he "couldn't afford" to lend me any money. He's a physician that makes a whole ton of money and despite the current economy and job market, doctors will always be needed. If he couldn't help out, why did he offer in the first place? Just to sound nice? I don't really mind that he won't help (I'm not a kid anymore), but if he wasn't going to, I wish he hadn't said something.

[thetreble 19]

Interestingly enough, my dad told me that he'd help out with expenses if things got exceptionally tight, but when I brought up the subject, he told me he "couldn't afford" to lend me any money. He's a physician that makes a whole ton of money and despite the current economy and job market, doctors will always be needed. If he couldn't help out, why did he offer in the first place? Just to sound nice? I don't really mind that he won't help (I'm not a kid anymore), but if he wasn't going to, I wish he hadn't said something.

Aye, there lies the rub. I can't stand that. He should not have offered.

[Texanadian 10]

What can I say? I'm the flip side of you. Used to live on Vancouver Island. Now I live in Houston.

Down here, We're paying $89/month for myself, $97/month for my wife's son. Both plans are 3000 deductibles. My wife's work plan costs $96 every 2 weeks off your paystub and her company pays the other $900/month for her single coverage. That's for a 3000 deductible as well.

I never had lineups for going to the doctor, nor did I have costs involved. Maybe it's because I wasn't in busy Vancouver. Who knows.

My wife on the other hand has had nothing but frustration with surgery here. She went for a thyroid removal at St Lukes, in the medical center in Houston. First of all they wouldn't give her a quote until it was within 4 weeks of surgery. Then the quote was different from the final bill. (They had another doctor help out, found out about that when I got that bill in addition to the bill from the primary doctor.) The anesthetist sends a separate bill for labour despite the actual medical anestetia being on the hospital bill.

So my wife goes for a follow up doctor visit 3 weeks after the surgery. (She couldn't even get a hold of the doctor for the first week after)....She goes in to see him. Have you had any tests done? Why would I have any tests done if you hadn't ordered them?

Visit # 2. She goes for a 1PM appointment. I'm outside polishing my car. At 4PM, I'm putting away my stuff and moving the car back into it's parking spot. She drives up. Didn't get to see the doctor. The nurse brought me into the doctor's office at 1:30 and I sat on the hard wooden chair for 2 hours.......At 3:30 she got up and asked the nurse what was up. Oh he still has 4 more patients to see first. He's still seeing morning patients.

My wife got up and left. (She was supposed to be working that day). The nurse asked if my wife would like to re-book. Can you promise I won't wait for 2 hours? No we can't.

So all in all, it wound up costing around $4,000 out of our pockets between the 3K deductible and the 70% that it covers until it hits her 5K max out of pocket.

The sheer amount of paperwork is nuts.

[DeadPoolX 9]

What can I say? I'm the flip side of you. Used to live on Vancouver Island. Now I live in Houston.

Down here, We're paying $89/month for myself, $97/month for my wife's son. Both plans are 3000 deductibles. My wife's work plan costs $96 every 2 weeks off your paystub and her company pays the other $900/month for her single coverage. That's for a 3000 deductible as well.

I never had lineups for going to the doctor, nor did I have costs involved. Maybe it's because I wasn't in busy Vancouver. Who knows.

My wife on the other hand has had nothing but frustration with surgery here. She went for a thyroid removal at St Lukes, in the medical center in Houston. First of all they wouldn't give her a quote until it was within 4 weeks of surgery. Then the quote was different from the final bill. (They had another doctor help out, found out about that when I got that bill in addition to the bill from the primary doctor.) The anesthetist sends a separate bill for labour despite the actual medical anestetia being on the hospital bill.

So my wife goes for a follow up doctor visit 3 weeks after the surgery. (She couldn't even get a hold of the doctor for the first week after)....She goes in to see him. Have you had any tests done? Why would I have any tests done if you hadn't ordered them?

Visit # 2. She goes for a 1PM appointment. I'm outside polishing my car. At 4PM, I'm putting away my stuff and moving the car back into it's parking spot. She drives up. Didn't get to see the doctor. The nurse brought me into the doctor's office at 1:30 and I sat on the hard wooden chair for 2 hours.......At 3:30 she got up and asked the nurse what was up. Oh he still has 4 more patients to see first. He's still seeing morning patients.

My wife got up and left. (She was supposed to be working that day). The nurse asked if my wife would like to re-book. Can you promise I won't wait for 2 hours? No we can't.

So all in all, it wound up costing around $4,000 out of our pockets between the 3K deductible and the 70% that it covers until it hits her 5K max out of pocket.

The sheer amount of paperwork is nuts.

Hmmm... that's not too good. I've never been to St. Luke's so I can't comment on that. I'm sorry you and your wife had such a bad experience. Unfortunately, medical staff can be difficult anywhere.

One thing I do have a small issue with is the quote. A price quote is never the actual amount you'll pay. Quotes are used to merely get a "ballpark" figure, so you have some idea of the overall price. This extends well beyond medicine. In many areas of life, a price quote can be different from what you'll actually pay.

[trailmix 77]

Yes, both sides of the border have problems with their systems and both sides have bad Doctors.

My niece had scoliosis - we noticed her shoulder blade seemed to be protruding one day as we were walking in the mall. Several xrays later it's confirmed and it's moving really really fast. Due to a lame orthopedic surgeon in Calgary, my Sister ends up taking her to have her surgery at the Shriner's hospital in Spokane. Brilliant care and she is just fine.

ffwd a few years - my Nephew has scoliosis. A Doctor in Omaha, NE at the children's hospital does the surgery (2 years ago in January). My Sister starts to notice that my Nephew's spine seems to be getting crooked again. She takes him for his follow up visit to the surgeon a couple of months ago.

He tells them that my Nephew is fine...he just has 'a short leg'

She has since taken him to another Doctor who has referred them to a specialist in St. Louis - someone who specializes in fixing surgeries that were messed up, they will see him at the end of January.

He now has to have the surgery redone.

[thetreble 19]

Yikes, T-mixey. That sounds awful. You are right though in saying good and bad on both sides. Major pros and cons to both sides of the border.

[TayL 0]

I've been in and out of Canadian medical care for most of my life. I got very very sick as an infant (my mother's an idiot and didn't think to take her newborn to the doctor when said newborn got a cold that didn't get better for several months, until the baby, me, nearly died) and I have an extremely rare tendon condition that I tried to have repaired so that I could continue my musical career. I also got a hernia at 18 from lifting milk crates in Tim Hortons.

I spent a lot of time in the ICU as an infant. I'm not sure how long it was, but it was awhile. That alone would have bankrupted my family if we'd been on my fiancé's medical insurance. From 15 to 18, I saw 20 different specialists for my hands. Obviously, with that kind of number, I wasn't waiting long from one specialist to another. The longest wait I had was four months and that was for a specialist who I specifically chose and whose office told me was backed up and not taking new patients at the time. He specializes in musicians only and is the only doctor of who specialises in musicians in my province. I begged them for an hour to make an exception for me, which they did, and they got me in within 4 months.

My hernia surgery took place a year after the diagnosis--but that was by my choice. They could have had me in less than a month later, with the surgeon I chose. I chose, instead, to wait awhile so that I could continue working a bit longer to save up some money for expenses while I recovered from abdominal surgery.

Only once did I ever experience a wait time of more than 2 hours in an emergency room, and that was on an occasion where three of the doctors shifted to work that evening had fallen ill with a cold that was running through the area. Hospital policy was for ill professionals to stay home to protect patient health, so they had one doctor on the emergency room until 3 hours later, when they were able to get several doctors in from a neighbouring town to cover their missing doctors.

I'm currently uninsured and, yes, I'll agree with the fact that inhalers are expensive! Because of the pneumonia I got as an infant (that's what my "cold" was), my respiratory development is a little "off" and when I get sick, I have to go on inhalers to prevent colds and stuff from settling into my lungs for the longterm. That does get a bit ridiculous, I'll agree.

I know you're frustrated right now, but honestly, it will get better. The costs WILL go down. I'm quite sure that some of the costs incurred would be just as bad in the US if you were uninsured--and others would be worse.

You have my sympathy, as I do know how it is to be ill. Best of luck to you.