A Q for a smart Canadian, about healthcare

Y

youRsmellA

Member
Could someone outline the steps you take to get healthcare if you, for example, hurt your back pretty badly in Canada. Where do you go first? Do you have to do a lot of paper work? do you ever receive bills?

I'm doin my own research too but I'd like some firsthand input also.

thanks guys.
 
show up to the clinic or emergency room whatever. show your assurance maladie card and take a number and wait
 
the real question is if you actually qualify for care or if you just get sent home with an ice pack.
 
If I get sick, I go to the clinic, show my health card, tell them whats wrong, wait a bit, see a doctor.

If the doctor prescribes me antibiotics, I do have to pay for the pills, unless I have some kind of insurance.
 
i had to get my knee operated and i waited about 3 and half months and my dad is a doctor so when you dont have any family that works in a hospital or for health canada you wait about 5 months
 
You go to the hospital. You give them your health card. You are admitted. They check you out. Sometimes they do some scans, and sometimes call you back for some more scans a few days later. Then they prescribe medication or treatment, which you go get at the pharmacy, or wherever you're getting it. If you need surgery they schedule you for it, which can be quick or take months depending on how urgent it is, and what the surgery is.

Our health care system isn't perfect but on the whole it works really pretty well.
 
For example, ACL surgeries usually take a while to schedule, whereas my dad tore his achilles tendon this summer and had surgery the next day.
 
people say you wait for hours when you go to the hospital. ive been twice and never waited more than an hour. both for pretty minor things. broken collar bone and pnuemonia.

also someone said you pay for pills, but im pretty sure they are heavily subsidised or there is a price cap. i dont think your paying full price.
 
I posted this in another thread not to long ago...

I had appendicitis in early September, went to the hospital a day earlier and they thought it was gastroenteritis (food poisoning). They told me to come back if the pain started to localize on the right side. Sure enough when I woke up the next morning, the pain was pretty strong on my right side, I tried to stick it out, but after telling my dad, he took me to the hospital.

I waited for a while. First in the triage waiting room, then in the ER waiting room, after about 2-3 hours I got into the er where I got a bed. After waiting another six hours in the ER, with doctors coming in to check me out, see how I was doing and telling me that my surgery was coming up... I waited and waited for what seemed like forever. My gf came in half way thru so it wasn't so bad.

After waiting a little while longer, the door opened finally, with a doctor saying that my surgery had been postponed and that they were moving me up to the 10th floor of VGH. I continued to wait up there for another couple hours. After another round of painful questions from nurses (they must have filled out like 7 or 8 sets of 10 page packages of paper) they took me to pre-op.

I waited there for another 4 hours... saw some people that were definetly more in need of an OR then I was, but I was still quite annoyed at having to wait for so long, especially after being told multiple times that I was up next.

The wait was decently long, but its all based on the need of the patient... While I was in Pre-op, I saw another guy with appendicitis, he got wheeled in immediately, and he was in much much worse shape then I was. Looks like his had ruptured.

But again.... unless you are dual-citizen or something... concentrate on getting a fake citizenship and Care Card.

 
Dictator Obama might want this kind of health care for the United Communist States of America. Yay!
 
How long you wait at the hospital really depends on how important your injury is and which hospital you go to. Obviously, densely populated areas have busier hospitals. At the same time they often also often more advanced machines etc.When I thought I had broken my arm (so I was in no danger) I had to wait 5 hours to get an xray.On the other hand, when my brother cut his leg open and was bleeding everywhere he got through to a doctor right away. When I went to the hospital with a concussion and suspected broken arm they had a stretcher for me in less than 5 minutes.
My dad had to wait a few months for his ACL surgery, but that was because there was a very specific specialist he wanted to see. It was about three weeks when I wanted to see a specialist for sports-induced lung problems. I needed contacts to even get to see him because he was mainly employed by UBC so I was fine with waiting a bit. I'm sure I could have gotten a meeting faster if I didn't care who I saw.
 
Yeah it all really depends. In a hospital in a big city you might be waiting up to 5-6 hours at any given time. Usually, the wait is about an hour, but it can be longer sometimes, as well as shorter a lot of the time. Healthcare in Canada is awesome for the people receiving it, for the doctors though, not so much. I've heard Canadian doctor's make wayyyy less than those in the states. It's kind of fucked up but I'm really happy with the canadian healthcare citizen as a patient that is lol
 
I tore my ACL this is how it went.

Went to see doctor the next day, thought it was Partial MCL tear. Said if it didn't get better in 1-2 weeks to come back to get a better examination when swelling was less.

2 weeks later, no better, saw a specialist who thought it was meniscus and told me to get an MRI.

Here, I either could have waited a few weeks - month or two for an MRI at a hospital. They give out time slots in order of urgency and knees are not very urgent. But my parents had extra health insurence plan on top of government plan so I went to a private clinic 2 days later to get it which was covered under this my parents insurace.

Got results a week later and they knew it was ACL. Got a surgury date about a month later. This time can vary depending on your hospital, specialist and how busy they are. I know people that have waited a few months.

Had my surgury. Physio was covered by government as long as I went to get it at the hospital. They cover physio here too, if it is needed. AKA suberban soccer moms who go to because their wrists hurt are not covered. It is meant for people recovering for major suguries.

But, the hospital was an hour each way, and that added up to a lot for me, so I went to a physio center near my house which was again covered by my parents private insurance and not governemnent cause it wasn't at the hospital.

If you need medical care you will never get turned away. But for things that are not urgent like elective surguries you can wait a long time going from specialist to specialist and waiting for MRIs, and operating rooms... That is really the only downside.

There is both a public and private system

Private sector is still pretty small. No such thing as private hospitals, just clinics They are usually geared towards getting care for elective stuff faster. They are not legally allow to do all medical procedures. They don't have ERs. If you want care from these either you pay out of pocket or on an additional health insurace plan. I guess kind of like a US system, just only for elective stuff and a lot smaller.
 
tl;dr version of this thread:

1. Get hurt

2. Go to hospital

3. Get diagnosed

4. Wait (time determined by how serious your injury or illness is)

5. Get treated

6. Leave without paying

7. ???

8. Profit

If you do want surgery straight away and are willing to pay, you can simply drive over the border and get it.

The best scenario IMO is a dual system, where there are public and private options (exactly what Obama is trying to implement if im not mistaken.)

If you cant afford to not wait, you have to suck it up and wait a few hours and get treated.

If you can afford to not wait, you pay and get treated ASAP.

I dont see how anyone can actually have a problem with such a system? It works fine all over Europe.
 
what a valuable contribution to the discussion. and even from some one who isnt Canadian, and therefore cant really weigh in on this.
 
holy shit. that long......... fuck.

what would they do if you had a job or some reason that required you to be on your feet, active, ie needed to be fixed up 10 minutes ago? bump you ahead of someone else? if so how long would the wait be?

waiting for an MRI is something that seems so foreign to me as well. as someone who has had a couple, both on knees and back. its have the doctor prescribe getting an MRI, finding a time slot, and within the week, (in my case i want to say next day) in there getting it looked at...
 
I am not going to lie...that sounds fucking awesome...and to people who say they wait for hours in Canadian hospital, I remember when I broke my wrist a long ass time ago and I was literally at the hospital for about 3-4hours just to get an x-ray and had to go somewhere else to get a cast..in an American hospital...Anywhere you go the wait for an x-ray is going to super long unless you have a bone sticking through your skin or need to go to the E.R right away

and to whoever said the thing about Obama being a dictator...lawlz
 
The funny part about people blaming wait times on the Canadian system is that it has more to do with availability of staff, than it does with how you pay for service. Yes, when we canadains present to the emergency department or clinic we dont have to pay out of pocket, its like insurance but the premium is taken from our taxes. There are lots of reasons for increased wait times, first is the level of urgency of not only your case, but how it relates to the other cases in the hospital that day. and second, are there nurses and doctors and other support staff (x rays, lab) available to either provide care, or assessment.
our system has huge flaws. and there are lots of things that we still have to pay for. But, its really nice to be able to do the things you love with out worrying about unexpected medical costs. I broke my wrist, the visit, surgery and rehab cost me nothing, once my sick days ran out I was covered by Medical EI until I could return to work. The system wasn't perfect, but I got fixed, and could focus on getting better without worrying about money. and knowing that thats available to all my family, friends and loved ones ... its piece of mind.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top