Quote:
Originally Posted by SmokeyTheBear
healthcare in canada is not free. Not sure why that myth perpetuates. There is one insurance coverage for everyone , your fee is based on your net income. Coverage is probably free for welfare people like it is in usa.
|
The insurance premiums have almost nothing to do with the actual costs of the Canadian medical system. Keeping all of these social programs afloat requires a huge amount of revenue, and is the main reason everything in Canada is much more expensive than the USA.
If you are middle to upper class in Canada, you probably pay at least half of your income out in Income Taxes, Consumption and Sales Taxes, and hidden Duties on just about everything.
So correct, it is very very far from being free.
An interesting exercise would be to amortize the OP's $160k bill over 10 years and see if the $16k per year is what would be made up in additional taxation if he were Canadian.