Posted on: 10-12-05 11:08:59
I tried to do a search here but couldn't come up with anything informative so I decided to put this question out to all you CDs.
Anybody have thoughts/links to articles to the 'free' healthcare system? If the additional taxes in Ontario are any judge, it doesn't seem to be holding up too well.
Canadian seem to love their health system but is there any push to privatize it, perhaps on a provincial basis at least? Can we expect any changes to the system in the next 5 years or so?
British columbia got its first private healthcare centre. $2300 a year plus $1200 enrolment fee.
http://www.canada.com/national/story.html?id=3f0317c8-b2bf-400e-a738-70216766efce
I do not know if any such moves are on in Ontario.
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Interesting...of course only the quite affluent will want to foot the extra bill after already paying for govt healthcare. But at least it shows that more Canadians are getting fed up with the healthcare system.
I hope Canada can move to some form of privatized healthcare down the road...
The ‘additional taxes in Ontario’ are by all accounts peanuts compared to what one would pay (as premiums) in the States. That being said it’s a minor irritant when one pays out the health care premium and then has exclusions for things like eye-care. Nevertheless, if you work for a decent employer, the slack is usually picked up by the employer’s coverage.
One would have to be incredibly naïve to think that the system is ‘collapsing’. Yeah if you think that replacing your hips, knees and other body parts to ‘enhance your quality of life’ constitutes an absolute emergency – you’re going to be disappointed. Also if your child has a bruise from a minor fall, and you think that’s cause to call the paramedics and be rushed to emergency, chances are you’ll have to wait, simply because the attending nurse WILL (and should) classify it as non-emergency no matter how much you kick and scream. On the other hand, an acquaintance of mine had a heart attack in the office recently, had paramedics on the scene in minutes, and there certainly weren’t any ‘wait times’.
A 2 tier health care system is inevitable. There have already been court rulings in its favour in Quebec and there’s a high profile provider from BC that’s likely to open shop in the GTA. The Ontario provincial government will probably oppose them, be taken to court and and we’ll have to see what happens from there.
For more info about health care in Ontario, try googling OHIP!
Canada will be like India then.
The poor and middle class will not be able to afford Health care and will just die untreated.
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If the employer provides additional benefits as part of the compensation then I guess it does help.
Additional tax vs. US premiums is not an apples to apples comparison - the govt already takes a healthy chunk to provide the 'free' healthcare.
Anyways, the point/question I was making/asking was that this additional healthcare tax, however small it may be, shows that the provincial govt is admitting that the healthcare system is being strained. Which goes towards what I was asking....how much longer before it just isn't feasible anymore.
Honestly, I have no complaints with the healthcare system in India. It is cheap and the doctors are good as long as you know which clinics to go to.
I did browse through the OHIP website...more interested in trying to read some independent commentary though.
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Orginally posted by alexm
If the employer provides additional benefits as part of the compensation then I guess it does help.
If you are in a decent job and an employer who isn't mickey-mouse, there’s a pretty high probability that you will have that coverage! - and yeah, it does go a long way.
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Orginally posted by alexm
Anyways, the point/question I was making/asking was that this additional healthcare tax, however small it may be, shows that the provincial govt is admitting that the healthcare system is being strained.
While health care does end up as a significant provincial government expenditure, I wouldn’t exactly say that. The government pulls the premium in as just another revenue source, and is important to Ontario in view of its past difficulty to balance the books. (The province of) Alberta also collects a premium although it carries a surplus – isn’t necessarily indicative of the system being under ‘strain’.
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Orginally posted by alexm
Which goes towards what I was asking....how much longer before it just isn't feasible anymore.
In terms of feasibility, we aren’t talking about a country that’s in the doldrums economically here. This is a country that has run federal budget surpluses of several billion dollars in each year this decade. If the expenses continue to mount, there would need to be a reorganization of the way money flows from the feds down to the provinces, and that is a tug of war that’s been happening. On the flip side, an ageing population will challenge the system.
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Orginally posted by alexm
I did browse through the OHIP website...more interested in trying to read some independent commentary though.
In the lead up to an election any ‘commentaries’ floating around will contain exaggerations of the problems in the system (the left will emphasize the ‘threat’ of private health-care, the right will emphasize ‘wait times’).
On a slightly different note, the availability of health care in the near to middle term should hardly be a concern for any immigrant. The long term can never be ‘guaranteed’.
(Don’t take offence), but if you are primarily looking for a reason not to immigrate, any perceived ‘strain’ would be enough, and a conversation with a frustrated ‘desi’ through this website would probably take care of that!
