[reeftool]

I went through many years with a crappy day job because of medical conditions with one of my kids. Changing jobs would have left me without coverage for a year and I was teetering on bankruptcy as it was. The Obama plan leaves a lot to be desired. My youngest who is a recent college grad is still on my insurance now which is a good thing but it's forcing me to keep working for a few more years if she doesn't get something better. I want to retire but I can't.

[Wheatfield]

How many would-be entrepeneurs fear to quit their "day jobs" because they would then be without insurance? Many years ago a friend and I did wedding and sports shoots part time; neither of us dared go full-time, I was divorced and Joe's wife worked part time, thus no health coverage without our day jobs.

Good point, and I think it shows in some of the stagnation in America. One thing that a solid social safety net does is give a person the confidence that they might need to go out and do something really daring.
The possibility of losing everything and having to live on the street because your entrepreneurial dare skidded into the ditch would keep a lot of people from trying.
Knowing that even if you failed miserably, you wouldn't be punished by having to live in a cardboard box with your mother in law in a Motel 6 parking lot is certainly somewhat of an incentive to try new things.

[Ratmagiclady]

plz I can has hydrocortisone? Not half milllion dollars, maybe 10-20 mg oral daily would not cost a half a milllion dollars? (stomping around* It'lll either work or not, and there's nothing fancy doctors that make you wait several months to travel so they can cluelessly-consult about sh*t you've been living with for decades are going to tell better at this point. and the greed economy ain't waiting.)


Basic, basic stuff, maybe not so profitable, but.... please. Cortisone. Please.

All would-be Dr. Houses aside, it'll either work or not, and I'm abou out of time. )

[GeneV]

Good point, and I think it shows in some of the stagnation in America. One thing that a solid social safety net does is give a person the confidence that they might need to go out and do something really daring.
The possibility of losing everything and having to live on the street because your entrepreneurial dare skidded into the ditch would keep a lot of people from trying.
Knowing that even if you failed miserably, you wouldn't be punished by having to live in a cardboard box with your mother in law in a Motel 6 parking lot is certainly somewhat of an incentive to try new things.

And from the side of the small entrepreneur as employer, being able to offer the same benefits as a large employer helps to level the playing field for hiring good employees.

[Wheatfield]

And from the side of the small entrepreneur as employer, being able to offer the same benefits as a large employer helps to level the playing field for hiring good employees.

I heard a piece on the CBC the other day, talking about the state of affairs (USA centric). They were dealing more with the lower economic end of things and talking about how if the rungs of the ladder are moved to far apart, to the point that it looks unclimbable, that people will stop trying.
For the people who aren't on the ladder at all, the jump to the first rung might look pretty daunting, and perhaps very crowded, but even if you do make it as a small entrepreneur, you might be forced to sell your idea to a large company simply because the rung above you (going from prototype to manufacture and hiring) might also be too large of a jump.
The game now is structured in such a way that in order to succeed, you need to be on the large side, but the deck is as stacked as possible against this because the guys who have already made it big don't want competition.

[SteveM]

It's been interesting seeing the changes at my work now that we have been taken over by US interests, and especially the behavioural differences between Canadian and US based consultants. US workers deliberately keep working in some form during retirement with the sole goal of keeping their medical. Obviously, this need seems foreign to Canadians.

We are also seeing a restructuring of compensation. US employees now work from home, provide their own equipment, and only get paid for billable time. I think there is some confusion as to why the Canadian employees are less likely to support this model, but there is less incentive to be tied to an employer. For US employees, contracting back to the company with the possibility of not getting paid during slower periods is attractive as you also receive benefits such as medical. Canadians on the other hand have the option of contracting out all of their services in their entirety and not bothering to be an employee of the company. Why would one contract themselves by the hour and then hand over 2/3rds of their rate to a third party unless there was sufficient benefit? Steady employment, training and working from an office setting are benefit enough for some to work for an employer, but take those away and the only thing left is medical. Canadians already have that, so the model is not very attractive.

I wonder if dismantling the US health care system to be in a form similar to other countries would be too painful for others in the US corporate world.

[Wheatfield]

I wonder if dismantling the US health care system to be in a form similar to other countries would be too painful for others in the US corporate world.

It would certainly be too painful for those in the health insurance end of the corporate world.

[SteveM]

The whopping medical bill faced by the family of Canadian freestyle skier Sarah Burke, who died from a head injury while practising at Park City, Utah, has triggered a spasm of embarrassment among Americans over their health-care system.

"No one in Canada finds themselves in that predicament, nor do they face losing their homes as many Americans do when they become critically ill or suffer an injury," Potter wrote.

"Burke's case should be a sobering reminder to Canadians of what could happen in a privately-insured market, rather than a public system where everyone is insured against a catastrophic event," Remington wrote.

Americans put their health-care costs in spotlight after flap over skier Sarah Burke?s hospital bill | Daily Brew - Yahoo! News

[reeftool]

I think the issues with Sarah Burkes bill should wake people up to the fact that most medical insurance doesn't cover you in another country. If I get injured skiing in Quebec, I will have to cross the border to NY for my insurance to pay unless Canada is so gracious as to cover the medical costs of American tourists.

[SteveM]

I agree....this aspect certainly isn't a reflection of the type of health care provided by a country. I would expect that I would get a hefty bill if I went to any other country including the US with no insurance.

As far as coming to Canada.....you can expect to get a hefty medical bill and there are international rates posted at the few hospitals I've been to. Otherwise everyone in the world could get free care for the cost of a plane ticket.