Re: Mental energy

On Wed, 8 Jun 2011, Mike Findlay wrote:
> I think walk in clinics are set up for exactly that kind of thing.  And 
> in Canada you're health care isn't really "free" is it?  Isn't there a 
> deduction taken out of your check?  When I worked in Ontario, a long 
> time ago, I remember an OHIP deduction.

Healthcare is managed by the provinces, so it varies from region to 
region.  Here in BC, I believe you do pay into the Medical Services Plan, 
but only if your income is above a certain level; before I got married, I 
was a few years behind in filing my tax returns, and when I did get caught 
up with that, I got a hefty refund from the Medical Services Plan because 
it turned out that, as a freelance self-employed writer, I simply wasn't 
making enough money to warrant paying the MSP fee (at least not fully).

In fact, I can't remember the last time I paid the fee -- but then, I've 
been a full-time stay-at-home dad for a couple years now, and before that, 
my income had taken a significant hit from all the daddying anyway.

There is probably some sort of MSP amount deducted from my wife's 
paycheque -- plus, because her job is unionized, she pays into a health 
insurance plan for extended health and dental benefits, which came in very 
handy when our boy needed a psychological assessment so that he could be 
officially diagnosed as autistic (we could have waited for the free, 
"public" assessment, but the waiting list was a year long, so we "jumped 
the queue" and got a "private" assessment, which was faster).

But each member of our family, including each of our kids, has a "CareCard 
number" provided by the provincial government, so whenever we have taken 
our kids to the pediatrician or the emergency ward, etc., it is *their* 
number that is processed, *not* mine or my wife's, and I don't believe we 
have ever had to pay for their appointments.  I guess the kids, like me, 
don't make enough money to warrant paying into the program.  :)

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