| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
bassexpander
Joined: 13 Sep 2007
Location: Someplace you'd rather be.
|
 Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2007 5:43 pm Post subject: Canadians, what do you make of this? |
 |
|
I got a junk/mass mail from a friend back home in the US. I would like to hear input from other Canadians about this mail. What do you think?
Do you really pay 55% in tax?? That seemed unbelievable.
| Quote: |
; This was sent from Canada to a friend in the States.
I saw on the news up here in Canada where Hillary Clinton introduced her new health care plan. Something similar to what we have in Canada. I also heard that Michael Moore was raving about the health care up here in Canada in his latest movie. As your friend and someone who lives with the Canada health care plan I thought I would give you some facts about this great medical plan that we have in Canada.
First of all:
1) The health care plan in Canada is not free. We pay a premium every month of $96. for Shirley and I to be covered. Sounds great eh. What they don't tell you is how much we pay in taxes to keep the health care system afloat. I am personally in the 55% tax bracket. Yes 55% of my earnings go to taxes. A large portion of that and I am not sure of the exact amount goes directly to health care our #1 expense.
2) I would not classify what we have as health care plan, it is more like a health diagnosis system. You can get into to see a doctor quick enough so he can tell you "yes indeed you are sick or you need an operation" but now the challenge becomes getting treated or operated on. We have waiting lists out the ying yang some as much as 2 years down the road.
3) Rather than fix what is wrong with you the usual tactic in Canada is to prescribe drugs. Have a pain here is a drug to take- not what is causing the pain and why. No time for checking you out because it is more important to move as many patients thru as possible each hour for Government re-imbursement
4) Many Canadians do not have a family Doctor.
5) Don't require emergency treatment as you may wait for hours in the emergency room waiting for treatment.
6) Shirley's dad cut his hand on a power saw a few weeks back and it required that his hand be put in a splint - to our surprise we had to pay $125. for a splint because it is not covered under health care plus we have to pay $60. for each visit for him to check it out each week.
7) Shirley's cousin was diagnosed with a heart blockage. Put on a waiting list . Died before he could get treatment.
 Government allots so many operations per year. When that is done no more operations, unless you go to your local newspaper and plead your case and embarrass the government then money suddenly appears.
9)The Government takes great pride in telling us how much more they are increasing the funding for health care but waiting lists never get shorter. Government just keeps throwing money at the problem but it never goes away. But they are good at finding new ways to tax us, but they don't call it a tax anymore it is now a user fee.
10) A friend needs an operation for a blockage in her leg but because she is a smoker they will not do it. Despite paying into the health care system all these years. My friend is 65 years old. Now there is talk that maybe we should not treat fat and obese people either because they are a drain on the health care system. Let me see now, what we want in Canada is a health care system for healthy people only. That should reduce our health care costs.
11) Forget getting a second opinion, what you see is what you get.
12) I can spend what money I have left after taxes on booze, cigarettes, junk food and anything else that could kill me but I am not allowed by law to spend my money on getting an operation I need because that would be jumping the queue. I must wait my turn except if I am a hockey player or athlete then I can get looked at right away. Go figger. Where else in the world can you spend money to kill yourself but not allowed to spend money to get healthy.
13) Oh did I mention that immigrants are covered automatically at tax payer expense having never contributed a dollar to the system and pay no premiums.
14) Oh yeh we now give free needles to drug users to try and keep them healthy. Wouldn't want a sickly druggie breaking into your house and stealing your things. But people with diabetes who pay into the health care system have to pay for their needles because it is not covered but the health care system.
I send this out not looking for sympathy but as the election looms in the states you will be hearing more and more about universal health care down there and the advocates will be pointing to Canada. I just want to make sure that you hear the truth about health care up here and have some food for thought and informed questions to ask when broached with this subject
Step wisely and don't make the same mistakes we have.
|
|
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
RACETRAITOR
Joined: 24 Oct 2005
Location: Seoul, South Korea
|
| Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2007 5:49 pm Post subject: |
|
|
It doesn't exactly ring true. Some of the points on the list are undeniable (waiting time in emergency rooms, no second opinion) but some just seem totally false (government promising to put more money into health care).
I'm sure it was written by a Canadian conservative who's talking out his partisan ass. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
gojulie
Joined: 08 Jun 2007
|
| Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2007 5:57 pm Post subject: |
|
|
i agree, its not perfect, but most of that is WAY off base. My taxes were around 20% and I never had to pay for anything when I have had a few surgeries, broken arms, etc.
Most of that list I have never even heard of and it bugs me that some people think that way. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
canuckistan
Mod Team
Joined: 17 Jun 2003
Location: Training future GS competitors.....
|
| Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2007 5:58 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| 55% tax bracket? He's making buckets of money (and whinging). |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
ajgeddes
Joined: 28 Apr 2004
Location: Yongsan
|
| Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2007 6:33 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Yeah, to be in a 55% tax bracket, you have to be making a tonne of money and even then it sounds weird. He must be a gov't employee which means when you retire you continue receiving about 85% of the pay for the rest of your life, which could be 40+ years.
I agree with the others. Some ring true, but others seem totally fabricated by something with a bitter experience.
Also, it does change from province to province, but that is for sure not the case in Ontario. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Treefarmer
Joined: 29 May 2007
|
| Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2007 6:36 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| america spends all of her tax money on the army |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Fresh Prince
Joined: 05 Dec 2006
Location: The glorious nation of Korea
|
| Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2007 6:53 pm Post subject: Re: Canadians, what do you make of this? |
|
|
| Quote: |
Do you really pay 55% in tax?? That seemed unbelievable. |
I actually did a side by side comparison of the U.S. and Canadian tax reductions of middle-class worker salaries, awhile back. It's a difficult task because each province in Canada, and each state in the U.S. have different policies.
For example, you can't compare the tax rates of two people; one living in San Francisco, and one living in Ontario, because there are city taxes that exist in San Francisco that don't exist in other U.S. cities, property tax rates that are higher than most U.S. cities, and state income tax rates that are different than other U.S. states. There are also state sales taxes and city sales taxes on almost everything people purchase for people living in San Francisco that wouldn't be experienced by someone living elsewhere. It's a difficult task to compare the two.
In the end, I found that both tax rates were effectively the same around 33%-35%, depending on the level of consumption of heavily taxed items such as gasoline and property, although Canada's taxes were often a couple percentage points higher. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
canuckistan
Mod Team
Joined: 17 Jun 2003
Location: Training future GS competitors.....
|
| Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2007 7:18 pm Post subject: |
|
|
I think the whole "this was sent to me from Canada" thing is pure bogus to begin with. Anyone in a 55% tax bracket doesn't give a rats butt about $125--they've got more than enough disposable income. Looks more to me like anti-universal health care crap from the usual suspects in the US given it's THE big electoral issue now.
You know, "be careful with this system which (a Democrat) wants to put into place!!"
Notice to the Repub spin-doctors: Canadians say "eh" as a tag, we don't write it (especially not coming from someone in 55% tax bracket.)
That gave it away for me.
But it's got to look like it really, really, really, really came from a Canadian.
And Bush *just* veteod expanded health care for poor children because, as Republicans put it, "it would put us on our way to having socialized medicine."
Repubs are utterly soulless scuzz. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
twg
Joined: 02 Nov 2006
Location: Getting some fresh air...
|
| Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2007 7:40 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Neo-Con propaganda and nothing else. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
valkyrian2
Mod Team
Joined: 15 May 2007
|
| Posted: Sat Oct 06, 2007 3:28 am Post subject: |
|
|
Not to mention that extra billing ("... have to pay $60. for each visit for him to check it out each week...") for a doctor's visit is ILLEGAL under the Canada Health Act.
The story is NOT TRUE. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
