Taxes and Healthcare in Canada

Off Topic
21

We’ve got the phone thing as well… not sure what it is called, but you can talk to a nurse and get advice.

I suppose it would calm some people down and stop them from making useless trips to the hospital.

However, I fear it is so simple and convenient, even with waiting times (due to speaker phones), that it will be so over used it will be impossible to keep it viable as it gets more widely known.

It is simple economics that anything that is “free” is horribly overutilized because there is no “cost” which stops people from taking advantage of it.

With this free line people can call every time junior scrapes his knee, when at least before they’d have to get up the motivation to spend their gas money and drive to the emergency room for a wasteful visit.

22

[quote]vroom wrote:
We’ve got the phone thing as well… not sure what it is called, but you can talk to a nurse and get advice.[/quote]

It’s called Telehealth Ontario. What the nurses at the other end do is tell you whether you need to go to ER or make an apointment to see you family doctor, but like someone else said, they almost always say go to the hospital because they don’t want the liability if they’re wrong.

23

[quote]yustas wrote:What would be the percentage of an income tax alone? In US we pay taxes for goods and services as well.

Thanks!

[/quote]

At the federal level we pay nothing on the first $8012.00. From $8013 to $35,000 the rate is 16%. Between $35,000 and $70,000 you pay 22%. Between $70,000 and $114,000 you pay 26%, and if you make over $114,000 that portion is taxed at 29%.

Each province has it’s own income tax schedule as well. In Ontario the first $33,000 is taxed at 6.05%, from $33,000 to $66,000 is 9.15%, and over 66,000 is 11.16%.

These are the 2004 rates. I don’t have the 2005 numbers until probably the end of January.

24

[quote]Magnus157 wrote:
As was mentioned, many of our better doctors do leave for the U.S to make big $$ in the private systme there. My cousin who is one of the top oncologists in the world left for Tulsa years ago and loves the fact that when he diagnoses a patient with cancer, he can often begin treatment the same day. [/quote]

My family knows a doctor who left Canada to practice in the US. After 5 years he was back because while he was making a whole lot more money there, the malpractice insurance was killing him, and he actually had more money to live on when he was working here. This may not be typical, but it’s what I’ve seen.

25

[quote]Slaughter wrote:
yustas wrote:What would be the percentage of an income tax alone? In US we pay taxes for goods and services as well.

Thanks!

At the federal level we pay nothing on the first $8012.00. From $8013 to $35,000 the rate is 16%. Between $35,000 and $70,000 you pay 22%. Between $70,000 and $114,000 you pay 26%, and if you make over $114,000 that portion is taxed at 29%.

Each province has it’s own income tax schedule as well. In Ontario the first $33,000 is taxed at 6.05%, from $33,000 to $66,000 is 9.15%, and over 66,000 is 11.16%.

These are the 2004 rates. I don’t have the 2005 numbers until probably the end of January.[/quote]

Thank you, very interesting. I don’t see THAT much of a difference compared to US. However, there are some states that don’t have income tax like Taxes and Florida for example.

-Yustas

26

[quote]Slaughter wrote:
yustas wrote:What would be the percentage of an income tax alone? In US we pay taxes for goods and services as well.

Thanks!

At the federal level we pay nothing on the first $8012.00. From $8013 to $35,000 the rate is 16%. Between $35,000 and $70,000 you pay 22%. Between $70,000 and $114,000 you pay 26%, and if you make over $114,000 that portion is taxed at 29%.

Each province has it’s own income tax schedule as well. In Ontario the first $33,000 is taxed at 6.05%, from $33,000 to $66,000 is 9.15%, and over 66,000 is 11.16%.

These are the 2004 rates. I don’t have the 2005 numbers until probably the end of January.[/quote]

Here is what we have on the Federal level for a single person.

$0 - $7,300 - 10%
$7,300 - $29,700 - 15%
$29,700 - $71,950 - 25%
$71,950 - $150,150 - 28%
$150,150 - $326,450 - 33%
$326,450 and above 35%

For example in California if you’re making over $40,346 the rate is 9.3%
Here is the link to state income taxes.
http://www.taxadmin.org/fta/rate/ind_inc.html

-Yustas

27

[quote]yustas wrote:
…like [/quote]Taxes[quote] and Florida for example.[/quote]

I take it you meant Texas? Nice typo.

28

[quote]yustas wrote:
Here is what we have on the Federal level for a single person.

$0 - $7,300 - 10%
$7,300 - $29,700 - 15%
$29,700 - $71,950 - 25%
$71,950 - $150,150 - 28%
$150,150 - $326,450 - 33%
$326,450 and above 35%

For example in California if you’re making over $40,346 the rate is 9.3%
Here is the link to state income taxes.
http://www.taxadmin.org/fta/rate/ind_inc.html

-Yustas

[/quote]

That is surprising. I always assumed that since your taxes were not supporting your healthcare system that the tax rates would be much lower than ours, but they seem pretty close to on par.

29

[quote]JPBear wrote:

Probably the worst thing about our health care is the way you get treated like a low life slug every time you use it.

You are seen by the health care workers as a drain on the system and another reason why they are overworked. No doctor has any need or desire to impress you with good service, they think you should be kissing their feet because you are fortunate enough to be in their presence. They are right.

One million people in Ontario do not have a doctor. That is a big number when you consider there are only 12 million people in Ontario.

[/quote]

With today’s obesity epidemic it is no wonder that doctors may be fed-up with giving the same types of people the same advice over-and-over again. These people are also the reason that our heath care costs are going up, and why no one can get in right away.

I am very health conscious, and very blessed that I have not had any major injuries, so I do not spend much time in the hospital.

I can say however, that anytime I have been to the doctor they treated me with respect. I have never felt like “a drain on the system”.

I think that my athletic condition has a lot to do with that. Also the fact that my records don’t say that I’ve been there every month for some preventable reason…like weight, alcohol, or drug related illness, or injury.

Why do you feel that “you get treated like a low life slug every time you use it”, when everyone in Canada uses the same system. There is no way around it.

It does slightly upset me that I have to pay for Heath Care when I don’t use it. I mean, I don’t pay for a dentist if I don’t use one (I recently went for a check-up after 7 years, and still don’t have a cavity), but we also pay for insurances that we don’t use. I guess they’re peace of mind.

30

[quote]JPBear wrote:

Probably the worst thing about our health care is the way you get treated like a low life slug every time you use it.

You are seen by the health care workers as a drain on the system and another reason why they are overworked. No doctor has any need or desire to impress you with good service, they think you should be kissing their feet because you are fortunate enough to be in their presence.[/quote]

Really? I’ve never had that experience. I’ve been to see a doctor maybe a half dozen times in the last 5 years, and always been treated with repect.

If you were there for stupid reasons and actually were putting an unnecessary drain on the system, then I could see it.

31

Just for the record, I’m pregnant and I’m not misusing the system. This may come as a surprise to you but a pregnant woman needs to see a doctor from time to time. I know they go without in third-world countries and all, but this is not a third-world country.

My husband has seen a doctor maybe four times in the last ten years. Each time was for something serious. The last time he had to use one of those walk in clinics because he doesn’t have a doctor. The clinic opened at 4:00, and we got there a half hour before they opened. By the time the clinic opened, there was a line up 42 people long.

Each person spent approximately 5 minutes with the doctor before being shoed out. When we got in the doctor was a complete asshole, did not listen, did not tell us what was wrong, and ran out the door cutting me off mid question. When we left the clinic the line-up had only grown.

Why do you think these people don’t have a doctor? Because their doctors thought they were using the system and refused to see them anymore? No, because they commited the heinous crime of moving to town within the last year. We pay in the highest tax bracket, and only use the system when it is absolutely necessary. I’m not saying there are not people who frequently misuse the system, my sister-in-law is an ER nurse and I hear all the stories, but they also happen to be a certain type of person, and I am not even going to open that can of worms.

I am lucky, I have a doctor. I had to go through the phone book and beg doctor after doctor until someone finally caved. My doctor has his receptionist wash out the urine sample cups in a plastic bowl in the lunch room (which doubles as the room I get weighed in) in order to reuse them, but still, I have a doctor. (How much could a urine sample container actually cost?)

You know, we could argue about this all day, you telling your little anecdote, me telling mine, but it doesn’t matter. I believe in the free market. I don’t think the US has it right, I think they have moved dangerously close to us on this matter because there are a lot of misguided liberals in the US too. The US spends an awful lot of money subsidizing health care. When I say I don’t like socialized medicine, people assume I would prefer the US system. That is not true. I would prefer a free market system, completely free market. This would only work if we had a responsible government who would actually put the saved tax dollars back in our pockets instead of finding other creative things to waste them on.

32

Last year, the obesity epidemic cost America more than $100 billion, according to Ann Wolf from the university of virginia, in a paper presented at an international obesity symposium.

Obesity increases health care costs, accident risks,absenteeism and disability, and reduces productivity.

Excess fat increases the risk of back pain, heart disease, stroke, diabetes and several types of cancers. Obese people have high drug costs and spend more time in the hospital then lean people.

Obesity is a world wide problem.

The World Health Organization estimated that 300 million people worldwide are obese. For the first time in history, excess fat is a more serious health problem then starvation.

(Paper presented at European Congress on Obesity, Athens, Greece, June 4, 2005)