Comments on: Top Ten Ways to Get into Debt (Part 1)

By: Arlene

Arlene — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 21:19:23 +0000

That was a good question SR and great answer Geoff! I have had nothing but good things to say about our healthcare system including quality of care and excellent nurses and doctors. I’m also lucky enough to have excellent benefits with my employer so I hope I will never run into #5.

By: Geoff

Geoff — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 13:24:25 +0000

Don’t apologize SR, it was a good question. To sum up:

1. Health care in Canada isn’t “free” we pay a lot more in taxes than Americans do to have it.
2. In addition Canadians usually have to pay for most medicines + many procedures/treatments aren’t covered by the free health. To cover this, most Canadians can either buy separate coverage or their employer subsidizes the cost, usually to about 80% of medicine cost / treatments not covered. This is usually between $50 – $150 a month for most families/singles, depending on coverage / participants.
3. Often touted as superior to the American model, its worth noting that Canadian wait times for procedures are quite high.

Hope this helps!

By: Saver Queen

Saver Queen — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 03:00:51 +0000

haha poor s.r. – you pose one little question and you get this onslaught of canadians correcting you! is it obvious how sensitive we are about our health care system?

By: s.r.

s.r. — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 00:27:40 +0000

sorry i misunderstood and I seemed to have taken the discussion in another direction but thanks

By: Mountain Girl

Mountain Girl — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 21:56:31 +0000

I would just like to also mention, s.r., that our health care in Canada is not “free”. We pay for it through taxes. In our case, the idea is that all that pooled money takes care of the basic health care needs of everyone, but you could still get nailed by the expenses that aren’t covered.
Like many others here, I have already discovered not to take being well and able-bodied for granted. I blew my knee while performing, and was out of commission for regular work for almost a year ( I have a very physical job, but was lucky to be able to move to desk work while I recovered from surgery). It was such a wake-up call. I was lucky that WCB had me covered, but it made both myself and my husband prioritize the emergency back-up plans. That was one of those times I was very glad that we had our EF in place. We realized that we needed to get insurance in place for disability. It was sheer luck that I injured myself on the job and so had a source of insurance through WCB. How easy would it have been for that to have happened off the clock?
Now that we are expecting our first child, we have not only our life insurance in place, but our “income insurance” or critical illness in place, as well. It’s so easy for accidents to happen. And it’s so much easier to recover and heal when you aren’t sick with stress over unpaid bills, on top of everything else.
We took your advice from A Women of Independent Means, Gail, regarding the upcoming baby. We have cut down to 1.5 incomes and put the rest into savings for baby year. And we have a budget worked out for a year of reduced income. Hopefully, we won’t even need the savings. It feels great to know that we’ll be able to relax and enjoy baby’s first year… well, as much as baby lets us!

By: sandra

sandra — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 21:56:04 +0000

Angela and Amanda thanks for the response.
Angela shes a waitress at a wing place. Great money and shes great at saving her money also. Ill never forget when my parents took all of us on a cruise and my 3 kids aged 10 12 14 had a paper route and they all saved and took $100.00 US each to spend. In the gift shop my daughter said she wanted something and i said well then buy it and she said you mean i have to use my own money and when i said yes she decided she didnt want it anymore. Now at ages 17 20 and 22 they all have savings no credit card and my eldest put herself thru university by working her butt off since she was 14 only allowing us to pay for her books. Teaching your kids about money early really does pay off for them for their future.
I think im going to look into blue cross in ontario. Thanks again to both of you.

By: Angela

Angela — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 21:39:48 +0000

@ Sandra – I lived for about a year between university and a job with insurance. During the first year, I learned that there were stuff that could be covered by insurance but I could learn to live without. For example, I learned to live without my contact lenses, and I learned that wearing “old-fashioned” glasses would be just fine. On the other hand, your daughter might want to consider putting away some of her earning for medicial emergency. Think about it — even your employer might offer insurance, part of the cost would be coming from your pocket anyway. So, just put away a small amount of money as if you had an insurance.

Sandra, I’m curious what what sort of job your daughter has. I had worked for a temp agency for a few years. While I worked for the agency I was covered by an insurance…. I didn’t think I would be covered!

By: Amanda

Amanda — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 21:29:01 +0000

Sandra, I was in that non-insured place between university and my first job with health coverage. In Alberta I was able to sign up with Alberta Blue Cross at very reasonable rates. Most people will only need the most basic package that they offer. When I got my job, Blue Cross made it easy to cancel my coverage with no extra fees.

By: sandra

sandra — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 19:47:49 +0000

sorry the kelsey post was from me sandram it was still under my daughters email.

By: Kelsey

Kelsey — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 19:41:47 +0000

Erin i am so happy to hear you are now cancer fee
My question is that i have a daughter whos 22 and out of university. At the moment she works at a job that does not offer health plans and she is no longer covered under my husbands. What can we get for her. It scares me that shes without it when weve always have insurance on all the kids before.

By: Erin

Erin — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 19:23:37 +0000

I am so glad you wrote this. In a matter of 2 years I went from being a healthy, paying off my university while I attended full time student and employee with no debt…to a new mom and found out I had cancer. It really threw me for a loop, with all the appointments and stays in the hospital I just wasn’t physically or emotionally ready to go out and find that starting job and shell out for daycare, that would ended up being sportatic. 4 years later (and cancer free) we are starting to pay back all the debt…life can change so fast

By: psychsarah

psychsarah — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 18:33:36 +0000

I don’t think #5 can be underestimated! I treat people who have been in motor vehicle accidents (like cancer, everyone thinks these happen to someone else), and although some insurance pays “income replacement benefits” it maxes out at abour $400 per week unless you pay extra each month to increase that amount. I would be in big trouble if my income was reduced to that amount, especially when out of pocket costs could increase (i.e., meds, equipment etc.). Hence, despite the fact that my husband called me paranoid, we got life insurance and disability insurance as soon as I started working. I have seen too many people who have enough to deal with with their health concerns, and then financial concerns compound their stress. Debt hell is even worse when you are so injured or sick that you can’t go out and make more money!

By: Tracy J

Tracy J — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 17:51:10 +0000

That post gave me shivers. The worst-case-scenario kind of stuff that we are all trying to not think about. ALAS we do need to think about it and prevent the “debt hell” that could easily happen. Your words resound a cautionary bell, and anyone who ignores this does so at their own peril!!!!

By: Saver Queen

Saver Queen — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 17:02:22 +0000

I myself spent literally thousands of dollars out of pocket in the brief time (a matter of months) I spent between graduate school and getting a job. I had dental work that I needed that cost thousands, and then had to shell out for a combination of chiro/physio/osteo/massage, etc that I used to treat a chronic back problem, plus medication.

But yes, I think Gail is actually speaking of insurance intended to cover you when you suddenly have a disability or illness that prevents you from working. I work for a health charity and I know how much our clients suffer while trying to apply for disability payments. It takes years, and it’s very restrictive. I don’t know how some of them do it.

By: Debbie

Debbie — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 16:30:59 +0000

S.R.,

Basic health care is covered in Canada. Things like routine dr’s appts, some referrals, tests, etc. Even some non-basic stuff is covered like MRI’s and some surgery, but the waiting times can be horrendous (it seems everyone has a different experience).

But, things like dental, glasses, long-term disability, physio, meds, chiro, prosthesis, travel health insurance, etc. aren’t always covered. And not all company sponsored plans are equal, some people top up with personal plans.

I can’t imagine paying $500/mo either, although I’m sure that’s not uncommon. My combined provincial health, critical illness, long-term disability and life insurance comes to $85/mo and that covers most things for a family of 4. Some things you have to top up, and that’s why we also pay into my husband’s plan.