It's "Tax Freedom Day" in Canada

[wkelly91]

Nothing is free

This forum is.......right?

Who have I been sending money too

Madison

Arlo

[Madison]

Wow - is that $250/month for 1 person? Our premiums are no where near that high - I'm not sure what they are now, I'll have to check but I'm sure for my family of 6 I'm paying around $70/month (but I'm not sure if my employer has to kick in too).

Yep. Try finding health insurance when you own your own business or are self employed. I'm not talking about cheap insurance where you have constant co-pays either. I mean good, solid insurance. It's ridiculously priced. My wife works for Brinks Incorporated which is a global company and their insurance prices are through the roof. I've seen cheap insurance, but normally you get robbed on co-pays and there are tons of things that are not covered. I've also seen employers who pay the insurance, but then salaries are kept lower than they should be, in order to help cover the insurance premiums.

No matter how you slice it, good insurance is just too expensive and most people would save money without it. Now as we all get older, good insurance is more important, and I'll be looking at getting covered eventually. Right now though, it's just a better option (cheaper) to just pay for whatever happens.

Not to mention that cash prices on medical is typically cheaper than insurance prices. That's in all works of insurance (car, health, dental, vision). Good example is my brother's torn ACL/MCL surgery. The initial bill was around $16,000 when they were asking for his insurance paperwork. When they found out he was paying cash on the spot, it dropped to $8,000. Just part of the whole insurance run around.

[stomperrob]

Wow - is that $250/month for 1 person? Our premiums are no where near that high - I'm not sure what they are now, I'll have to check but I'm sure for my family of 6 I'm paying around $70/month (but I'm not sure if my employer has to kick in too).

Yep. Try finding health insurance when you own your own business or are self employed. I'm not talking about cheap insurance where you have constant co-pays either. I mean good, solid insurance. It's ridiculously priced. My wife works for Brinks Incorporated which is a global company and their insurance prices are through the roof. I've seen cheap insurance, but normally you get robbed on co-pays and there are tons of things that are not covered. I've also seen employers who pay the insurance, but then salaries are kept lower than they should be, in order to help cover the insurance premiums.

No matter how you slice it, good insurance is just too expensive and most people would save money without it. Now as we all get older, good insurance is more important, and I'll be looking at getting covered eventually. Right now though, it's just a better option (cheaper) to just pay for whatever happens.

Not to mention that cash prices on medical is typically cheaper than insurance prices. That's in all works of insurance (car, health, dental, vision). Good example is my brother's torn ACL/MCL surgery. The initial bill was around $16,000 when they were asking for his insurance paperwork. When they found out he was paying cash on the spot, it dropped to $8,000. Just part of the whole insurance run around.

That really sucks. Our system could work and should, but it is not well managed. The federal government underfunds the provinces and now that there is an election they promise to put money back into the system that they took out 5 years ago. One of the problems with everything being free is that the system gets abused - people go to the doctor for every little thing which they wouldn't do if they had to pay. Because doctors are paid by the government, their fee schedule is regulated as to what they can charge so the only way to make more money is to see more patients so doctors' offices resemble assembly lines with the doctor racing from room to room spending just a few minutes with each patient and quickly scribbling out a prescription.