We, as Canadians, are also reminded that our "free" healthcare is not free every time we look at the income tax deductions on our pay stubs.
It's also a mistaken idea that everything is free. A few months after the ambulance ride that saved my life, I got a bill in the mail for it.
I also got a bill for the stockings I had no choice in wearing to prevent blood clots.
A bill for the respirometer that I was ordered to use post op to keep my lungs clear. A bill for a box of tissue in my room.
The province allows for a twice yearly grant for ostomy supplies totalling $600. Anyone who knows the cost of flanges, bags, paste, wipes, belts, and dressings knows how far $600 gets you. I am fortunate enough to have great insurance through my employer, but even then, I have to prove to them in some cases that all other avenues have been exhausted before they pay, and then they dont pay 100%. As a final blow, you cant just flash the insurance card and have it all covered. In most cases you pay for it yourself and then get reimbursed, which can take weeks. Sometimes it was a choice, pay the phone bill on time, or buy ostomy supplies. Guess which won out?
I was forced to use a walker during my rehabilitation. Had to rent that on my own dime.
Yes, the operation that save my life, and the reversal that came nine months later cost me nothing at the moment, so I will glady take that in exchange for a few other minor inconveniences.
I live in one of the more prosperous areas of the province and thousands of people don't even have regular doctors yet still pay taxes just as I do. I have the luxury of having found a family doctor instead of having to be like thousands of others who, when they get sick, have to find a walk in clinic, wait with everyone else, and fully explain their entire medical history every visit to a new doctor.
Funnygurl is spot on with her assessment of emergency rooms. I can recall being transferred to another hospital for an abdominal infection during my rehab, and waiting for nearly 6 hours on a gurney in a hallway on a Saturday night, while the nurses and paramedics wrestled with drunks, vagrants and high college students, while at the same time trying to perform triage to sort out the true emergencies.
Oh, and at the present time, our province is about $16 billion in debt and the federal government isn't too sure there will be any money left in the Canada Pension plan by the time I hit retirement age.