Americans ideas of living in Canada

[justintime]

You do not hear even the wealthiest people in Canada complaining about their tax money going to pay for someone else's health care. I cannot remember ever hearing anyone complaining about this. What you hear, is people complaining that our health system could be more efficient or  complaining about the need for more medical workers ... doctors, nurses, and nursing aides. Here in Saskatchewan, we have had a large influx of South African doctors in recent years, and our provincial government has held several job interview sessions in the Phillipines. There have been several hundred high quality nurses come from the Philipinnes in the past couple years, and I hear they are excellent and professional ( and as a bonus, they speak very good English and have a super work ethic).

Our health care system does need some major changes, but they are fixable changes. A major problem is the health care unions are very powerful and completely freak out if any changes are even mentioned. From my viewpoint, this is not only a Canadian problem, as I hear of major Union issues in the US as well. When the Union movement was formed many years ago, it was formed for many of the right reasons. What has happened over time, is that Unions have become far too powerful, and left wing, and they no longer serve for the same reasons that they were formed. I think there is probably a place for Unions in our society's, however, they really need to be put in their proper place. Look at the auto industry for another example. Another example of a good thing gone really bad.

 

[linnettejane]

i just want to know one thing... are there walmart supercenters in canada?

 

[Shady Lane]

i just want to know one thing... are there walmart supercenters in canada?

Hahaha, yep most definitely.

Most towns of much consequence have Walmart now a days. Including the super centres where you can buy groceries, get your hair cut, oil changed, new tires, optomoterist, photo studio etc.

Few of them are open 24 hours as many are in the states, and I've never seen Walmart selling Liquor up here but have down south.

We have many of the same chain stores etc in Canada as there are in the states.

While we have Walmart, we don't have Target etc.

But you do see quite commonly,

Walmart
Zellers (which replaced most of the K-marts here)
Home Depot
Pizza Hut
Mc Donadls
Burger King
KFC
Taco Bell
Subway
Sears

Etc Etc

 

[justintime]

Yup, we are getting Walmart Supercenters..... Walmart finally came into Canada in 1996 when they purchased a company called Woolco. Since then Walmart has expanded across Canada. Walmart Superstores are not as prominent in Canada as they are in the US, however there were about 40 at the end of last year, and another 15 are presently being built. There is a Walmart Superstore just across the border from me in North Dakota, and all I can say is that I have to walk further to find the stuff I am wanting to buy.... who buys all that crap anyways????

 

[GONEWEST]

You do not hear even the wealthiest people in Canada complaining about their tax money going to pay for someone else's health care. I cannot remember ever hearing anyone complaining about this.

So are people just wonderfully charitable on Canada or have they just gotten used to the government taking their money and giving it to someone else?

 

[GONEWEST]

WEll I will tell you what. Why don't you and all the rest that are complaining get a job in the local ER and see how many people we ALREADY are paying for. It really isn't a newconcept -- there is more medicade in the ER on a saturday night than paying customers. Why do you think that is?

OH BREEDER  If you read my post I said that the local hospital here posted a $300 million plus expense for indigent care last year. 3/4 of it for illegals and I am sick of paying for it and all the new "citizens" that are being born here. The thing is that I can now CHOOSE to pay my insurance premiums, find a lower cost provider, or take my chances on not needing care. But all the indigent care is again due to government policy, has absolutely zero relation to health care. If they were running shuttle buses to the border on the hour every hour to take these people home and then do something to keep them there, that would certainly bring my cost of health care down. They have absolutely zero right to anything here if they are here illegally. Yet I have to pay for them.

But not only do I not want to pay for theirs, I don't want to pay for yours, which I assume I currently do not. Obviously you don't want to pay for mine either, you didn't ask for an address to send a check. If you ad on the cost to me of paying mine, the illegals and yours, I can't afford it and shouldn't have to. Each person should be responsible for themselves.

Todays local paper says that local automobile dealerships have over 450 "clunkers" they have not been paid for no have any idea when they expect to be paid for. How many doctors do you know that would/could work without getting paid for what they do? Could you work for nothing until the government decided to pay you? The government can't run "Cash for Clunkers, how could they run health care.

 

[OH Breeder]

WEll I will tell you what. Why don't you and all the rest that are complaining get a job in the local ER and see how many people we ALREADY are paying for. It really isn't a newconcept -- there is more medicade in the ER on a saturday night than paying customers. Why do you think that is?

OH BREEDER  If you read my post I said that the local hospital here posted a $300 million plus expense for indigent care last year. 3/4 of it for illegals and I am sick of paying for it and all the new "citizens" that are being born here. The thing is that I can now CHOOSE to pay my insurance premiums, find a lower cost provider, or take my chances on not needing care. But all the indigent care is again due to government policy, has absolutely zero relation to health care. If they were running shuttle buses to the border on the hour every hour to take these people home and then do something to keep them there, that would certainly bring my cost of health care down. They have absolutely zero right to anything here if they are here illegally. Yet I have to pay for them.

But not only do I not want to pay for theirs, I don't want to pay for yours, which I assume I currently do not. Obviously you don't want to pay for mine either, you didn't ask for an address to send a check. If you ad on the cost to me of paying mine, the illegals and yours, I can't afford it and shouldn't have to. Each person should be responsible for themselves.

Todays local paper says that local automobile dealerships have over 450 "clunkers" they have not been paid for no have any idea when they expect to be paid for. How many doctors do you know that would/could work without getting paid for what they do? Could you work for nothing until the government decided to pay you? The government can't run "Cash for Clunkers, how could they run health care.

I have been paying social secruity since I was 16 and do you think i will everuse it? NO. No different. I would bet that there are quiet a few that are closer to consuming it than me just look at statistics. i do not see the health care issue as any different. I am already paying for indigent care so what makes the difference. I am already paying for Medicare no difference.Eliminate medicare and medicade and come up with a better way to manage care. Hospitals and Doctors jack up their fees 500% so that when medicare or insurance companys only pay a percentage. I see a cardiothoracic surgeon quiet frequently. When they do an echo and a CT scan with contrast it is over $7000.00. Something has to give. Do you know how many Doctors wait for reimbursement from Insurance companies? It can take months for them to get reimbursed. So again, no difference.

PS
I would bet that if we have the same carrier when they experience alot of claims premiums go up for all of us. So, i am probably already paying for you or you are paying some of my expenses as I consume alot. Anthem is paying for less and less. I am paying for more and more out of my own pocket.

 

[aj]

Could strict natural selection be the answer? Seriously......are we propagating bad genetics in the human gene pool that 200 to 16,500 years ago were taken care of by nature and lack of medicine?

 

[justintime]

aj... you may be right in your theory about a lack of natural selection in today's world. The big question is who gets to play God in today's society and decide who gets medical treatment and who doesn't. I don't think that anyone in Western civilization would be very comfortable living in that kind of world. My wife used to work with a lady who immigrated from China. She and her husband had a girl first born, and she was forced to abort a second child when it was also a girl. She told stories of babies with imperfections taken from the mother immediately at birth and destroyed. I don't think any of us want to go down that slope. If we lived in a world with medicine of even two generations ago, we would not only lose some people with poor genetics, but we also would lose some with genetics that are perfectly fine. Infections and disease usually don't just hit the weak in a population.

I think you are probably referring to how our grand parents and great grand parents, had to deal with lack of medicine in their lives. In my own family, I often am overwhelmed at how strong my grand parents were, as they lost their four oldest children in a period of 8 days. Three died of scarlet fever and one of a ruptured appendix on the way to see a doctor. I think this would totally destroy most parents in today's world. It didn't destroy them as they picked up the pieces, and went on to have another 9 children. Today, I think we take our health care and medicine for granted.

 

[Shady Lane]

Blah Blah blah blah blah.  I am only 22, but I have dealt with health care here in both Alberta and Saskatchewan a lot for someone my age!  I have had several surgeries, and been in an ambulance, and waiting room plenty of times.  My only complaint is going to a doctors office and dealing with MOODY doctors that don't seem to care whether or not I have a problem  They are certainly not all like that, but quite a few can be.  For what we pay for and what we get ( health care, medications, ambulance rides, etc), I CERTAINLY have NO complaints. 
Like others, I feel the Americans may be scared of change, and scared of actually caring for every man, woman, and child.  This is not 1912...it should not be "the toughest man wins".  There is NO NEED to tell a mother with a sick child to "tough it out" if she cannot afford to see a doctor for 2 minutes, and cannot afford the antibiotics to cure her baby.  Health care is not something to "make money on".  Well, yes, it is, but not by taking the desperate measures that the US seems to be. 

I like the immigrants.  Although many people may not, I do.  I appreciate seeing a whole Chinese family, open and run a family restaurant, and watch their kids bike down the street where they just bought a home of their own.  I appreciate seeing immigrants come to this country and boast about how kind we are, how much space and beauty there is, and about the great job they just got.  Even if it is at MacDonald's...they are HAPPY!  I love that Canada opens up so many opportunities for all of mankind!

What I find amazing is not one Canadian on here has said OH DEATH IS ME in regards to their health care. Wow maybe it CAN work!

I will mostly agree with this statement as well.

You really DON'T hear people in Canada griping about the cost of health care. I think that most Canadians have a similar view that Health Care is an essential service.

  Yes some of us pay more into the system then others based on our income, tax situation etc. I know that you are generally more likely to hear people complain about paying a tax bill to keep people on welfare, unemployment, dissabillities and other social services.

As a young single guy with no dependants making a moderate income, I definitely pay my fair share of taxes, and it's not the health care portion that generally concerns me. But that's the way the system works.

Pretty sure I pay more than my fair share of taxes that go towards roads, schools, sidewalks etc. Yet I don't go to school or have any dependants in school and I seldom walk on the sidewalk.

So what should happen, I should be able to opt out of all applicable taxes that pay for sidewalks?

Somebody in a lower tax bracket than I shouldn't be allowed to walk on the sidewalk?

What scares me far more than paying my taxes, atleast that is based on money I earn and is a percentage thereof, is the people I hear of in the states etc that pay $1,200 a month for health insurance policies  That seems huge to me, but yet I can't honestly say how much I pay into health care each year. But atleast it's there if I need it, or my family or friends need it.

  I'm not for a single second suggesting that the U.S should or shouldn't adopt a general health care plan like is in place in Canada, and frankly I really don't care either way, I just don't have a horse in this race. But I am sugesting that it is not the end of the worl and if setup and managed properly could be a real benefit for you all.

  I've read several comments regarding the care of illegal immigrants in this thread, and frankly my viewpoint is that if you are not a citizen of that country you should not be using it's services or even be there in the first place. But those are two seperate issues, what to do with illegals and how to prevent/solve the problem and unniversal health care are miles apart.

  Maybe somebody can clear some things up for me though, wasn't a Unniversal Health Care Plan one of Obamma's campaign platforms? Given that the majority of people in your country voted for him and his platforms wouldn't that dictate to some degree as that being a belief that many if not a majority believe in your country?

Don't get me wrong, there have been a pile of polliticians voted into my country thjat I certainly don't agree with their policies, ideas or campaing promises but ina democratic society all I can do is voice MY oppinion and vote for the candidates or parties that best reflect my ideals.

  On a side note, I think it's worthwhile to point out that I have two cousins who were both born here in Canada and are now Doctors practicing medicine in the U.S. One in Detroit MI and one in Green Bay WI. Hearing their view points on the differences in Canadian and Amaerican health care systems are most interesting.

 

[aj]

It looks like the Obama's reform plan is over. What was it called?Oh yea "cash for caskets".I wonder if Chris Matthews...."tingle up his leg" may now be a "all wee-wee'd up deal". It is impossible to double health care and have it cost less money. It is common sense. We need to start all over. Somehow Pelosi, Obama, and company have managed to destroy their popularity in what 6 months. Patients may like Canada system but I am told that the doctors are walking. The proposed reform is insane. Even the media figured this out.

 

[knabe]

line after line in the bill is legislation and counseling for legal american citizens.  there is nothing in the bill regarding illegal aliens.

i guess, as usual, it's better to be an illegal.  there are NO laws you have to follow.

1200 pages of child interval counseling, end of life panels, yes it's in there, abortion funding, yes it's in there, but nothing about sending illegals home.  there is nothing in the bill to get people making under 80,000/year to pay for their health care. 

it's a total redistribution of wealth, additionally funded by printing more money, evidenced by the recent government/hospital bill which gave a net benefit to the hospitals of 16 or 17 billion.

there is not ONE democrat solution that gets people to pay any of their own health insurance if they make under 80,000.  by definition, that's free, and someone ELSE is paying for it.  THAT is  nazi socialism.  remember, the nazi's called themselves socialists.  people get wound up forgetting the economic comparisons and lose sight of everything else in comparisons because of the holocaust, which they constantly use to get "offended" comparing people to nazi's.  it's the nazi socialists, the maoists, the lenins, marxist, etc, that are ALL the same.

 

[Doc]

Lemme see now…I wanna get this straight:



Obama's health care plan will be written by a committee whose head says he doesn't understand it, passed by a Congress that hasn't read it, signed by a president who smokes, funded by a treasury chief who did not pay his taxes, overseen by a surgeon general who is obese, and financed by a country that is nearly broke.


Hey!  What could possibly go wrong?

 

[tama]

JIT and co I have loved following this post.My experience with Canada has always been great! I love Vancouver.And I got it on first visit as I sat in no mans land at Blaine and could see mountains on mountains!It is so evident why the early settlers went north!!
  I found your comments rewarding in the hope that we can solve our health care problems.I also found comments about attitude to be more telling-perhaps because I too have preconceived notions.But somebody please explain why the topic always gets hijacked for a bitch session on evils of Obama or Pelosi and how bad we have it? Sorry that just slipped out! Listen I know you people are worried about change but change we must.Oh breeder is so right in our system subsidizing health care rite now.In my town the clinic is attached to Hospital clinic closes at 5pm so doctors can go work ER for title 19 patients they plan on them being there at just after 5 we (tax payers) pick up that tab.And we always will for some its how they work it out.No bitch just a fact.But we digress...
  More important to me is there opportunity for those that wish to emigrate into Western Providences?!!    
           

 

[Mark H]

Tama,

Rawes Ranches is hiring:  Check it out at: http://www.rawesranches.com/.  This the biggest Charolais breeder in Canada. They has a $ 4065 dollar average on their 2 year old bulls last spring.

Mark

 

[uluru]

I have just returned home from my cabin in the north (Northern Ontario) where there are lots of rocks, trees, lakes, fish, bears, moose  and American Tourists, mainly from Michigan and Minnesota.  
One of my first activities after catching up on my email was to go to SP and check my unread posts.
This topic jumped out at me right away and I have found the responses very interesting.

I may have a slight advantage over many of the other respondants as I lived and worked in the US (New York city) for over 5 years and had a national role that permitted me to travel widely throughout the US.
I also spend up to six months each year in Florida.
I have also worked from coast to coast and in the far north in Canada.
I was born and raised on a farm and then lived in a very small community in Sask, not far from JIT

I would suggest that both countries have regional differences and that may account for some of the responses from individuals in both countries.
I would also suggest there are more similarities between Canadians and Americans than we all believe.
People are people wherever you travel, some good and some not so good or different.
We have different government policies in various parts of each country that supposedly are what the people voted for.
We both like our freedom and generally respect our laws.
While Health Care is a subject that is very much in the news these days our populations are in general treated quite well by the health care professionals in each country. We just pay the piper in a different manner.

I have many very good friends in the US.
When spending time with them we don't really think of ourselves as being Canadian or American, we are just friends.

When your national anthem is played/sung at your events your patriotism brings tears to my eyes.
I wish Canadians could show their patriotism as openly.
I believe Canadians are just a patriotic as Americans, we just don't show it as openly.
Canadians are described as being more conservative than Americans, however I don't think one can generalize in that respect because we have some very outgoing Canadians and I have met some very quiet Americans.

The American Financial system rewards risk takers somewhat more easily than the Canadian system partially because of the different tax structures and that might account for some perceived differences between our two countries.

All in all we are fortunate to have each other as such good friends and neighbours  with such a long, basically unprotected border, no wall, no long river and really no serious problems.
We are each other largest or close to it trading partners with a free trade agreement that works or when problems occur has good dispute mechanisms.

We see lots of Americans in Canada during our summer months enjoying our scenery and natural resources and you in the US see many Canadians in your warmer states enjoying the sun and surf and warm weather in the winter months.

I truly believe we are fortunate to have each other as friends and neighbours.

 

[simtal]

all I can say is poutine, best thing out of canada since Rush

 

[Gary]

Likes:
Walleyes,Black Bears and your whiskey.

Dislikes:
Mosquito's you can ride and how fast your liters click off on your petrol pumps.

 

[OH Breeder]

all I can say is poutine, best thing out of canada since Rush

RUSH
AAAhhhh Rock band

 

[knabe]

ken dryden, hab