Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Canada Question for my Canadian freinds

You don't have your location in your profile, but if you or your son-in-law are anywhere near the Canadian border, take the prescription for insulin to Canada. Unlike Mexico, Canada has very tight quality controls and you can rest assured that you will get real drugs, not fakes.

Insulin in Canada is about one-tenth the cost as it is in the USA.

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John

I'm in southern NH, thank you for your post. I'm going to look into it

In Canada, you may not even be asked for a prescription -- insulin does NOT require a prescription in Canada.

However, nobody goes on it unless a doctor diagnoses diabetes (after all, you can't get high on it) , so some pharmacists may think it is on prescription. Just politely ask them to check.

I don't know if the US has laws against importing insulin though, so check that out! They might have import regulations to protect pharmaceutical companies in the USA.

I think the price difference is the number of years that a company is protected from other companies making generic copies of a drug they developed -- this time is short in Canada, so prices on generics are low.

John

jpb;
Happy New Year to you sir, I trust that the year's been a good one for you thus far.

We've had a relatively mild winter so far here - have only had to plow the driveway twice - but it appears that the third time is in the offing as the white stuff is drifting down as I type.

As some of the posters have mentioned already, I would also opine that the medical system is hit and miss.

Here in the Okanagan, while we're comparatively rural, it's still a popular place to be, so we'll get doctors in from South Africa or parts of the world where they'd prefer less winter and more recreational activity than they'd find in rural Alberta or Saskatchewan for instance.

That said, even here we're having problems recruiting new doctors and a few valleys over in the Kootenays some towns are forced to shut down their ER because of a lack of doctors.

Some folks have mentioned that specialists can be booked for what seems like or may well be years in advance which can be extremely tough when it's preventing one from working or doing other "normal" life activities.

We're pretty good at dealing with trauma cases in a reasonable time frame, broken limbs, etc seem to seldom be too much of an issue.

In the past 3 years or so there's been a epidemic of fentanyl overdoses here in southern BC. They're weekly in Penticton where our family works and we know it's welfare cheque day because of the ambulance sirens. The volume of overdoses is such that it absolutely will delay other folks getting surgery sometimes - as was the case with my late mother when she fell and broke her hip.

To be clear she did eventually get the surgery, but nonetheless the overdoses do tax our medical system to the point of stalling it sometimes. It's a situation that my LEO buddies have to deal with all the time too of course and it takes way, way too much of their time too.

Before leaving fentanyl, I often wonder aloud if the politicians spent even a tenth of the time dealing with that issue rather than trying to disarm us because a dozen gang members choose illegal firearms to remove one another from this mortal coil what the results might be, you know? There were by the way 1226 fentanyl OD's in BC in 2017, 1337 in 2018 and 702 in 2019 - daunting math any way you slice it, no?

Lastly to the OP's question, I'd say that it would really depend on the region of Canada vs the individual state and possibly region within that state as to whether our system would be preferable or not. I suppose that as with most things in life, we tend to prefer to stick with the devil we know don't we?

All the best to you in 2020 sir.

Dwayne

Great post, Dwayne. Hope all is well with you and yours!

Jordan;
Happy New Year to you and yours sir!

As always, you're too kind to a short old guy - but thanks kindly just the same.

We're doing okay for the most part thanks in that my good wife, our girls and their significant others are fine.

There's been a few other hurdles in life - my mother passed last spring Jordan, but as she'd been a dementia patient it was a blessing and answer to prayer that she finally went home. My much loved mother in law is also a dementia patient and looks to have the landing gear down now, but one never knows.

Somehow when the mind looses focus, humans can go into an "auto pilot" sort of mode and aren't as capable of willing themselves to pass into the next life.

This is a personal observation of course Jordan and needs to be taken as such - my medical license is on the wall right beside all the rest of me degrees....

Because for several years I was the HR/Safety Mgr of a local manufacturing plant and as well then looking after aging parents, we got a fairly good cross section with the different areas of medical care locally.

While I can't say what it's like anywhere else, we're lagging far, far behind where we could or should be with senior care here in the Okanagan. That said, I've heard absolute horror stories from folks in the Atlantic provinces, so I don't believe it's a local issue whatsoever.

Thanks again sir and all the best to you and yours in 2020.

Dwayne

Thank's Dwayne The biggest problem down here is not finding good doctors or hospitals, We have some of the best in the world. The big problem is rising costs for drugs and medical care. To keep there premiums reasonable a lot of folks ,are going with deductibles 5000$ to 10,000$. That's pretty easy to hit with one major surgery. Add the drug costs and it can really get crazy. A lot of plans don't cover chemo drugs for cancer. We have people filing bankruptcy because of medical bills.

I'm not gonna say don't go to Canada to buy insulin but you can bet your ass if it becomes mainstream enough americans will screw canadians by doing it and the cost of insulin will sky rocket for everyone.

You know whats messed up about canada? junkies get free needles and diabetics gotta pay for them. Canada sucks, most of the time.

A Canadian druggist can not fill a prescription from a US doctor.

The medical system will vary from province to province as its actually ran by the provinces. Here in BC the biggest bitch is waiting times for certain treatments. I've been lucky with my health so don't have much real info there but I know of people waiting several months to get an MRI or ultra sound to check out what could be something serious. Hip and knee replacements same thing, might take several months. Having said that most people I know say things have been improved in that regard a lot in the last decade or so.

I'd sum it up this way.. if you have a heart attack, cancer or similar very serious situation you will be treated and you will be treated pronto and to a very high quality. If you require more diagnostics because of a not proven serious situation you might be waiting. I think this last bit is a function of too big of a system with too much red tape and they can't keep up with changing technology fast enough as say a 50 doctor private clinic state side. Also its not "free" everyone pays a monthly fee whether out of your pocket, employer picks up the tab or its included with your welfare cheque. The reason people bitch up here over the US system is there's generally no wait if you have the cash and some Canadians do go state side and pay rather than wait for certain treatments.

In the original post the question was whether or not there was a "consensus" - and I would have to say without any reservations that there is an absolute, clear, and unequivocal consensus in Canada that socialized medicine is a good thing. Dissenters please point out ONE successful politician in Canada who thinks we should adopt the USA system. They don't exist. Not one. I will add that I wish there was a way to integrate "user pay" and "pay to get in the front of the line" medicine, versus what we have now. Pay for service is specifically outlawed. Allowing it would take pressure off the system, and would benefit socialized medicine because doing so doesn't cost the socialized system anything. But the unpalatable part of Canadian medicine is - NOBODY is special.That offends a lot of folks who have money. Me too when I take time to think and actually admit it. I admit we have too much bureaucracy, not enough efficiency, not enough reward for excellence. But almost everyone gets what they really need. Of course there are exceptions. That's what USA TV advertisements prey on. They are selling something. They are making money from your fears. I am proud that my country supports everyone, regardless of their ability to pay, each person has their constitutional right to life and health. Canada doesn't always get it completely right, and we have much to learn. But we're trying. I like our system because we have a functioning society and we take care of each other.

Totally depends on the province then whether you live in a big centre or rural. Rural is long wait times in clinics and having to travel to see specialists. Some provinces have both public and private for various procedures. Vancouver BC has hip / knee replacement private clinics as does Montreal PQ. Sask and BC have a partnership with private providers for other services as well. When I needed knee surgery in Alberta the public system was a 1 year + wait. I paid for my own MRI and sent the diagnosis to a BC clinic and they could do the operation in 4 weeks (cost was in my mind reasonable). The impediment to public / private partnerships is provincial governments. Any government that is left leaning is against this system. The system we do have does work and if you have a serious issue (friend just had a triple by-pass) there is no questioning on the cost --- you are in done and full rehab without having to provide your mortgage certificate. So the system works but has flaws and use of partnership for private clinics could reduce wait times. The mental health system in Alberta sucks and private is the way to go but you have to be able to afford this. Over the last couple of years there has been some press with a few politicians in the east going down into the states for cancer treatment or heart operations --- so perhaps they do not want to be treated by the people they are taxing to death. :-)

Dude you live in SASK and they have a 1 for 1 system with MRI/CT scans. For every 1 paid out of pocket scan the next in line in 1 "free" scan. That was around with Brad Wall.

Jason Kenney in AB is successful and he's on the way to allow people to pay out of pocket. If you disagree with JK being successful you're likely a Liberal IMO.

Ask yourself this, why should a country hold its citizens hostage to a broken medical system? If you have the means you should be able to pay your own way. Canada is the only socialized healthcare country that doesn't allow private medical care. Even the cucks in the UK and Australia allow this and europe too.

Also ask yourself why people with money go to the USA or Mexico for treatments? What price and wait time do you put on your own life or the lives of those you love?

If you don't mind sharing what was the cost of the knee procedure in BC?

Knee has partial ACL tear, torn cartilage and bad tears on the meniscus --- procedure was to trim out the torn meniscus and from memory around $6K.

If it meant going back to work early I would totally pay that cost on the LOC. Easier to make money at work than not work at all.

Has being outside Canada been brought up? As I understand it a Canadian is not covered. You have to buy travel

insurance, or take your chances?

Agreed. Also the pain factor -- so you go for a year plus in limited mobility which affects your life in other ways and discomfort or you move forward quickly.




This depends if it is an emergency when you are travelling and if you have a private plan. Yes up here we have private plans that for some through work that cover medical in other countries for emergencies. Not everyone needs travel insurance. However if the procedure can be done in Canada and you travel to the US to get it done you are fully on your own. When I retired I was given an option to take over payments on the private plan with travel coverage until I was 80. So the options can vary for individuals as well as not all employers may offer the same options. Even in retirement and with a public system there are differences depending on where you have worked and what you chose to carry or not for private insurance.

My thank's to everyone who replied. I don't know what the future holds for us south of the border. a lot of of people are starting to question our healthcare system. I know it doesn't seem right that a family should have to file bankruptcy, because of medical bills, or that a young family can't save to buy a house because of the cost of insulin.