I may not have a child, but I'm willing to pay for the gas (and frustration )to go to Toronto, and visit the Greek side of the Danforth to get the best spanakopita and gyros I've ever had.
I gave birth in MGH, which is the closest hospital to Greektown on the Danforth. The cravings sent me to the Danforth often, when I was pregnant. Swear to god, my child was 20% spanakopita by the time I gave birth.
The labour & delivery rooms are private. The Obstetrics unit for recovery afterwards defaults to non-private rooms (e.g. 2 or more per room with curtains) unless you upgrade. That's the arrangement I'm familiar with, anyways.
Depends on the hospital, for instance the new hospital near me only has one bed per room so every room is private because it leads to better patient outcomes, aka saves money in the long run. Who knew a little more peace and quiet and a better nights sleep could help sick people....
Anyway over time in Canada you'll see the old 4 beds per room disappear as older facilities are replaced, obviously going to be a long time though.
It really is location dependent, some people building hospitals realized private rooms were better for the patients and the budget long term decades ago, and some places have been slower to catch up. Seems like pretty much everywhere in Canada is on the same page now and new facilities have all private rooms.
New one felt luxurious. They threw a mat on the floor for me to sleep on in the old one (I’m the dad not the mother to clarify). In the new one I had a convertible couch thing.
My husband slept on the floor in a shared room and his snoring was so loud that the nurses decided that baby was ready to go home early.
The second baby at JPCH was luxury I couldn't ever have imagined.
My kids were born in the labor and delivery area and then we moved to the recovery area. Both were private rooms but my understanding is that the setup was because what you need during birth and after birth are two very different sets of equipment. Because surgery is a possibility in any birth, those rooms are set up for that, but that’s not generally necessary after birth.
If you don't pay, they put you in The Birthdome full of people in labour and you have to battle it out while birthing. Many may enter, only the strongest get to exit.
Source: I had babies and almost forgot to pay extra, what a wild day that was
The loser baby also has to be called "Oswald" if a boy, or "Girtie" if a girl, so that all the kids at school know they came into the world as losers that shamed their families.
Not while actually giving birth but for the night after when in recovery. And for our first there wasn't anyone else in the room so we didn't pay but still got a private room.
Yeah this is a common move at our hospital too, better to lose a ticket than pay for days. You can actually get a highly discounted rate if you’re having a baby, but it’s a bit of a hassle to go through customer service during limited hours.
Well i have a friend that tried that stunt on a parking lot near a train station. Ticket loss was 25€. He kept the car for 10 days. Instead of the 100€ (10€ per day). He tought he outsmarted the system and said he lost the ticket. They asked for the car, the license plate and roughly where he was parked. My friend gave the information. 15min later he gets a payment slip for 125€. He said the lost ticket was only 25€. But they explained they only needed to check on cameras where he was actually parked and that all parking spots have a sensor (apparently the same that know how many free spots are per floor). His car didnt move for 10 days. They checked the entrance cameras a few min before he parked and found out he entered at day X at time Y. So he paid for the time and the 25€ extra for losing the ticket.
Probably not, hospital my wife gave birth at you hit the cap after 4 hours and you automatically paid the cap with no ticket. I mean could be more or less but $22 is cheap for parking in the GTA.
At the risk of falling into stereotype this did make me feel sorry and want to say we 🇨🇦do dream of good things for you all, and the end of the Current Dark Times
And for the most part, they're not even upset about paying taxes in general, the "true" conservatives are generally upset at the perceived 'theft' of their tax dollars and not feeling like they 'get enough' in return for 'how much' they pay; typically it's the small handful of (delusional) libertarians who are upset about paying any taxes.
While I do generally agree that some tax dollars could be better-spent, publically-funded services are almost universally more cost-effective and offer better service and/or higher quality (when properly funded). Conservatives ironically don't seem to to understand that (or they're in on the grift and ready with cash-in-hand to buy up the latest public-service-for-sale).
They’re upset that they have nothing exciting to actually be upset about. Most of them would probably chill the fuck out if they had a juice box and a nap. They’re just overstimulated.
I mean not even conservatives... I work at a pretty liberal company and my educated professional early 20 something collegue told me when I visited the Cali office from Canada
"I went to Vancouver a few months back and it was like nice. I had sort of thought other countries were kinda third world."
I bit my tongue because compared to back home in Ontario the part of the Bay area the office was in was all concrete and aging strip malls, wide roads, overpasses, and fairly tired-looking commercial areas.
And your flock cameras… and your tech oligarchs… and measles.. and that fat president…and that cyclosporiasis out break…and you fucked away all your water.. and that voter suppression… and the money in politics.. the forever wars.. the debt crisis…
We do have our fair share of oligarchs in waiting up here. Instead of celebrating what we have we should be ferociously defending it against this continual erosion of rights and liberties that we have been seeing lately.
Plus don't Canadians have to wait until the child is like 2 years old before they can get an appointment for the birth or something?
Luckily we here in America can always get an appointment whenever we want. (*Assuming you book six months in advance and your doctor is on the right list for your insurance and they are taking new patients and haven't retired or moved because of something-or-other). Plus we also get to pay tens of thousands of dollars a year to have the privilege of not being financially ruined by a sudden medical emergency. Oh and - get this - you STILL get to pay more for each visit (even with insurance) than most people in the developed world with a proper healthcare system pay.
Here’s not me, with not my Mossberg 590 Tactical, not using it, in not Canada.
Americans don’t know a god damn thing about the USA, let alone Canada.
ETA: In support of OP’s post, I would like to add my personal experience with the Canadian healthcare system. I bonked my head while working on my concrete pump. I started bleeding like I was in a Stephen King novel. Fortunately, all I needed was a dozen stitches. I waited in the ER for 3 hours. I got the stitches, and a tetanus shot, and my bill was $0.00
A few years later, my girlfriend found a lump in her breast….. a year after that first appointment, she was cancer free, and her hair grew back. Flash forward 10 years, and even though it didn’t work out with our relationship, today she is with a wonderful dude and they love each other very much.
The best oncologists in the world, surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy….. The hospital bill? $0.00
Is it free? Absolutely not. We pay upfront with our taxes, so we own the shares. That covered my stitches, and saved the life of an angel.
Americans already pay twice as much as Canadians do for healthcare, and more than any other country in the OECD. It’s not even close.
Vaguely related, I was at DisneyLand last week. The fireworks finished, and the guy behind me started chanting USA, USA, USA…
I thought it best left unsaid that those fireworks were almost certainly made in China, and if the President has his way, people in the USA won’t be able to buy them for much longer…
I don't think people realize "Medicare for all" isn't universal healthcare like this either. While subsidized, people on Medicare still have to buy additional parts from private insurance companies to get more full coverage & still have deductibles.
Like my parents pay ~1/3 of their monthly social security income towards Medicare & things like Part D & still have a $10k yearly deductible
If we want universal healthcare like other countries, we should actually be pushing for "Medicaid for all"
literally any coverage for all would be an improvement for MANY. There's like 10 million Americans with no health coverage, if they need first aid they go clog up the ER
You should see the bill for my son’s latest chemo. There are so many freedom dollars on that bill that a single tear rolled down my eye when I thought about how many CEO’s would be getting their bonus this year thanks to my contribution to Q3 profits.
Thank you for helping increasing shareholder value during your tough times. Uncle Sam is gonna celebrate the contribution with a pizza party in the break room (limited to 1 slice, please think of your other coworkers)
As someone who was on the receiving end of 8 free rounds of chemo when I was a teenager here in Canada...may I impose and ask roughly what you did pay??
So far the first bill for just the doctor for the 1st round of treatment is $18,000. I’m not sure where we’ll be in the end. I’m not too worried about it. Can’t get blood from a stone, we don’t have debtors prisons anymore. So they can’t take my life from me. And I have had a whole host of medical issues in my life that already caused my first bankruptcy. And am now also disabled, so I just planned on just paying the bare minimum on all of this stuff until I pay it off or it kills me, whichever comes first. Now with my son’s Leukemia, it’s almost comical to even give a shit with the ridiculousness of this circus we call medical care in this country. As an American I was born into a lottery I never agreed to participate and I drew the short straw. Now I will pay for my moral failure of my child and I getting sick with rare conditions and not having the extra 2 million dollars in liquid assets we were told we should all have to pay for it. Just as god and republicans intended.
Come on, you're forgetting that you can hop on the phone and review the bill. After 4 hours of phone tag, you'll have the privilege of being told that there's nothing you can do.
I hate this for you guys (Americans). I had a relative who went through chemo for 5 out of 6 yrs, radiation treatment, one surgery, over a month in the hospital to recover, etc etc. We paid nothing (even parking was free for most of it due to covid). Also, when he was diagnosed, he was immediately put into treatment the next day... These stories of wait times must have been like some sprained ankle or something 😅
Not the person you were asking, but similar experience.
My little brother was treated for cancer, beginning in 1993. He was treated at UCSF and my mom used California state provided insurance for low income individuals.
The first year, which included a biopsy, 3 MRIs, a surgery, 5 weeks of recovery, chemotherapy and follow up visits would have cost more than a million dollars.
When my mom passes away the state of California will reimburse themselves using the value of her estate. Whatever is left will go to family. Which will be nothing.
Edit: my brother is fine, he has disabilities but he's happier than any of us. All he needs is a burrito and a baseball game to watch and life is perfect in his eyes.
I'm not worried about the house, my mom won't need it when she's not here anymore.
We got really lucky. UCSF had, and has, the resources to move forward with treatment regardless of a patient's income.
As an American, fellow Americans don’t understand priority and urgency. They’ve been brainwashed to think you’ll be in the lobby with your leg hanging by a strip of skin waiting for hours if we got anything resembling yalls healthcare.
I've been in big city ERs where there is a long wait. But a redditor told me I'm wrong because he lives in a rural area and there is no wait in his ER. That's how stupid many people are. Because they don't see it or experience it, they are right and we are wrong. I found this to be true during covid. I live in Montana where we were not hit by it very hard at all back in 2020. I met so many people in real life here who thought covid was a joke and that we were all overreacting because they didn't know anyone who got it. It was of course all over the news how many places got hit hard, but to them, it didn't exist. And these people vote. It really is a scary time we're living in.
Dont forget to mention that US taxes for healthcare are literally higher than Canada... Dumbasses are paying more for something they can't even use. Then they have to pay for insurance on top of it, lmao.
There are people who say "it's not free, you pay for it through taxes." And it's like, would you rather pay $50k over the course of your entire life without even thinking about it, or $50k all at once at the most hectic and busy part of most people's lives.
I want to be focused entirely on raising the child and keeping myself and my partner happy and healthy and NOT thinking about how to pay for this shit.
I compared my taxes with my buddy in that states and i paid 5% more in taxes, but he had to pay way more than that for insurance in addition to what they wouldn't cover.
And I pay about $3,300/year for a Vancouver townhouse. Considering the property value, that's nothing!
If I were still in my hometown in the states with a property of the same value (including converting to USD), the property tax bill would be $25,500/year!
I did it because I'm waiting on getting my Canadian citizenship and after factoring in the cost of healthcare and insurance take home would be very similar for us.
I've actually done the comparison with an American friend of mine who makes roughly the same. The difference in income tax payroll deductions over a year was less than $200.
That example over-simplifies the system down to the individual and reinforces the whole "I pay my own way, why should I cover your care?!" mentality. It's a shared cost spread across millions of taxpayers and you never even are made aware of the medical costs.
In reality, it's not a "what you put in covers you" system. You don't pay $50k in taxes to cover $50k in medical care. We pay normal income tax plus a surcharge of 1.5%. The 1.5% is collected from everyone, and spread across the population, that 1.5% is meant to cover all citizens for health through the year.
One year of surcharge doesn't come close to the cost of my care when I really need it, but that cost is spread across a working population of tens of millions of people, so it's neglible.
Also, our healthcare system doesn't exist for profit. That's the biggest problem the US has. Good luck getting those fingers out of the pot.
>Also, our healthcare system doesn't exist for profit. That's the biggest problem the US has. Good luck getting those fingers out of the pot.
ding! ding! ding!
This is the sole issue stopping any change from happening. The people in government who argue against Universal Healthcare all receive some of the best healthcare in the country for life. They know the things they say are bullshit but their donors/lobbyists control them
I would love to pay a little more in taxes in exchange for universal healthcare. I’m currently spending $1600 dollars a month on insurance for a family of 3, and still got charged an additional $450 dollars for an MRI last month. I can’t imagine the taxes for universal healthcare could even come close to that.
Actually if you copied the universal healthcare from for example Canada, you would not have to pay any for the insurance and you could lower your current taxes... Since the US government spends more of your tax money on healthcare than the Canadian government does for its citizens.
Economies of scale - one larger organization can offer a less expensive service per person
Less profit in the system - the private insurance model makes it so each entity is trying to pull more money from the system, creating some of the absurdly priced procedures and drugs in the USA compared to most other countries.
So, often that $50k can be cut down significantly or even halved.
Holy shit! I find this so hard to process. Canadian here, so this is beyond what I can understand. Even with insurance, it's still $16,000??? Please tell me that there isn't interest charged on top of that.
"Skin to skin after c-sec".... what the fuck... Who the fuck ... sits there and decides that is what the hospitals description will be on the recipt when they charge for a mother holding her kid for the first time ... And then doesn't think " hey maybe I'm the bad guy...."
Whats the alternative? Does ensuring the patient and baby are separated by a piece of fabric as to not technically be "skin to skin" allow for a discount?
It's parking. The single biggest expense when having a kid in Canada, unless you get a private room (birthing is always private!) for the time you stay, and often your work insurance pays for that.
Americans elected Trump twice.
They are thát stupid & morally bankrupt.
They could charge Americans for the air they breath, and get away with it just by saying that being against paying for air to breath is communist.
🤷♂️
Just picked up a few months of birth control for my daughter at the pharmacist. Free. I had no idea. I can see how easy universal access to family planning strategies is not just good for one young woman. It is good for Canada. Unwanted children impact us all collectively.
Giving birth at Montreal's largest hospital costed us more t $1,000+ because I was in a hurry and scratched both right-side doors of my car when parking beside a concrete pillar.
My wife was diagnosed with Breast Cancer just 4 weeks ago. She's had 3 mamography scans (basic, 3D and with ultrasound) and biopsy with ultrasound. And then one visit with her Oncology Surgeon.
We're at around $25k so far, with a $7900 MRI scheduled for next week.
I'm guessing the double mastectomy will be over $15k.
Then she goes through reconstruction and possibly chemo/radiation.
Got to love the US healthcare system.
Same boat brother, got the diagnosis this week. Wishing you and the wife the best and a speedy recovery. Obligatory fuck cancer for good measure as well.
One of my parents is from San Fransisco, the other from Ontario, but they were mostly living in the US. They still went north to have me because it was several orders of magnitude cheaper, and the care was better. The US health system has been relative trash for a LONG time.
im in the US, with insurance, it costs us around 5K. it was around 3K initially, and when the bill came, i asked for a discount and i paid everything in full right there, thinking that'll be it, but in the span of 1 year. i keep getting bills here and there. it was actually a draining and depressing experience
A reminder to everyone that the premier of Ontario Conservative asshole Doug Ford hates publically funded health care and wants Canada to have shitty expensive health care like the USA has.
Looks like OP ‘lost’ their ticket so they only had to pay the default lost ticket fee. Probably cheaper than paying for three days parking. Power move.
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u/MorboKat 19h ago
My baby-in-Canada cost was a bit more, but my hospital had a bakery with REALLY good spanakopita. So that cost is mostly my fault.