What's your resting heart rate?

[NbyNW]

I have mixed feelings on nationalizing insurance. On the one hand, the peace of mind that you are covered whether or not you are working is immense; On the other, I feel like I was already paying for health care when I had it through my employer; the money just didn't flow through my hands first. So I feel like it's just one big giant accounting problem that Americans will never agree on.

It was interesting to be living in Alberta while the health care debate was going on a couple of years ago. For one thing, a lot of Americans seem to think that Canada's health care system is national. If I understand right (please correct me if I'm wrong, Shootingstar!), what they have is a federal mandate that the provinces and territories provide health care insurance. So, you're covered but your insurance does not travel with you if you move to another province/territory or even just go on vacation. DH's company paid extra for us to have travel-related health insurance. I suppose if you don't have extra insurance you can always submit a claim but I don't know how successful people are with that.

Delivery of services can vary greatly depending on your geographical location. There are tons of Drs. in the big cities. Smaller towns struggle to attract and retain Drs. Even though Alberta has a perennial shortage of doctors, they don't make it easy for doctors to come from outside of the province to work; on several occasions we met experienced doctors (both men and women) who followed a spouse to Alberta from another part of Canada and it sounded like the requirements for them to get licensed to practice in Alberta were onerous.

I was never able to find a PCP in Edmonton. I asked both locals and newcomers for recommendations and everyone directed me to the listings on the Alberta Health website. The only Drs. taking new patients were at the public clinic where there is no guarantee of seeing the same person from one visit to the next. I started wondering whether having a PCP was a privilege reserved for locals. But as it turns out even a lot of my local friends had trouble getting a PCP. I could go on, but this post is getting long enough.

OTOH, some of the public health initiatives were very impressive. Getting a flu shot was a piece of cake, even during the whole H1N1 supply thing. I had a friend who lost 45 lbs, on her way to losing 60, through an experimental weight loss program with Alberta Health.

[shootingstar]

I believe there is a federal arrangement with provinces for transfer of money to the provinces for each provincial public health insurance program.

But that's only part of the story. Yes, I agree there are provincial differences of what residents pay (or not pay), availability of doctors, etc.

I've lived in Ontario, B.C. and Alberta. For whatever reason there is a problem in Alberta of immediately securing a family doctor as a new resident....it's probably a combination of doctor shortage, more women doctors who choose not to work punishing long hrs. (my sister is a living example with 2 young children. Now up to 40% graduating med students are women in Canada.). But there are other reasons.

BUT in Alberta for wierd (and stupid) reasons a resident does not have to pay a quarterly govn't imposed premium which is the opposite of B.C. (and I think Ontario. But I would have to ask.) This has been in effect for last few years. I doubt that is helpful to provincial budget on health care, but this province is more "selfish", in terms of its social support programs, etc. in general.

Alberta is the only province that doesn't have provincial sales tax...personally I just think it's stupid. Tax payments from the oil firms could never possibily cover our provincial budget.

I just see less sophistication and social services advocacy in Alberta. Voices of marginalized and weak/sick are quite muffled, compared to Toronto or Vancouver. And Calgary now has 1+ million people due to rapid growth in oil and energy sectors.

Yea, I guess I better get on the waiting list for family doctor..


In B.C. a single person pays abit over $56.00CAN every 3 months to the goverment. So it's VERY reasonable to have access to physician care. Of course, with additional payments to an insurer (ie. Blue Cross), one can stay in the hospital longer, get their own private room, etc. These top up services vary across different provinces in Canada. I am aware of this only because I've worked for various employers and knew what additional health benefits I could pay into.


In Vancouver I just merely dropped to my family doctor down the street with an appointment of course. Sure there were line-ups (as there are in big cities with many people) ...but it wasn't as difficult to find a family doctor with several days advance appointment booking for first time.

May I explain the level of quality of health care that is possible if you are in the right province, better city in Canada:

My father is under the care of specialists at Canada's top cancer research hospital in Toronto. He was never discriminated, never put back somewhere in the lineup for appointments because he is 82 and has cancer, which is terminal/non-curable now. He has appointments every few months, spend time, etc. He takes drugs. I have not heard of my parents charged much (if any) for these highly specialized drugs.


Sorry for my rant. But there are long time Albertans who want less tax, it is a province with big C Conservative for many decades, etc. Well, guess what: this is the situation that's going on right now. Alberta is abit like Canada's version of Texas in a down-scaled way, probably.

So does all this mean I should start taking my heart rate. For me it means doing simple stuff often, maybe not perfectly....cycling, eating ok, etc.

[NbyNW]

Sorry for my rant. But there are long time Albertans who want less tax, it is a province with big C Conservative for many decades, etc. Well, guess what: this is the situation that's going on right now. Alberta is abit like Canada's version of Texas in a down-scaled way, probably.

So does all this mean I should start taking my heart rate. For me it means doing simple stuff often, maybe not perfectly....cycling, eating ok, etc.

No problem -- I knew you would have an interesting perspective on this since you have lived in several provinces and still have family all over. What I don't get about Alberta is that they are always talking about how wealthy the province is, yet they can't get their priorities straight and solve some of the problems that you outlined.

FWIW, I think the oil companies absolutely could fork over more $$, for all the environmental damage they cause that potentially impacts public health.