Settling Down in Canada

I've mentioned before our intent to move to Canada. I'm a dual
US-Canadian citizen, so at least for me it was easy. I moved last
April to Quebec, in the process sponsoring my wife and kids for
permanent residency. It took 16 months in total, but after much
paperwork and stress, it is done. On January 23rd, 2017, my family
became landed Canadian immigrants. Now begins the process of
settling in - my wife has to trade in her US driver's license, we
had to sign everyone up for provincial healthcare, and we are
learning french.

There is a 3-month wait for provincial health coverage (there is no
wait for pregnancy and a few other special cases), I received my
card last July, but only recently was assigned a family doctor. You
hear about long wait times for family doctors in Quebec - I waited
six months, but that did not seem unreasonable to me since I had no
urgent health issues. Quebec assigns family doctors by priority, so
if I had a chronic issue needing attention, I would have been
assigned a doctor sooner. Urgent care can always be handled at a
local clinic or hospital, sans family doctor.

Anyway, I had my first Doctor's visit last week. It was quite a
relief not having any paperwork to fill out in the doctor's
office. I arrived for my appointment a few minutes early, showed my
health card, waited a few minutes, and was called in right
away. That was it. No forms, no co-payments, no dealing with
miserable office staff who are only there to act as a proxy for a
health insurance company. When I was done I had a prescription for
lab work in hand, which I took to the local provincial clinic
(called a 'CLSC'), next door. Again no paperwork or
bills. Healthcare is second to big business in the US, and it is
financially ruining people in that country. I've been there, I
know. It's not perfect in Canada, but it's far, far better than in
the US.

The US desperately needs single-payer healthcare, for everyone,
cradle to grave. But taxes! Why should I pay for someone else's
healthcare! I heard those objections in various forms from
co-workers at my last job, where everyone with a family was paying
$600/month for insurance premiums, _after_ the company paid 50%. And
the premiums were rising 10-15% a year, with increasing deductibles
and co-pays. They are already paying far more in premiums than they
would in taxes needed to support medicare for all, say. And they
already pay for other people's healthcare - since premiums go up to
support those with pre-existing conditions, now that the ACA
mandates coverage. But even before the ACA, the strain on
tax-supported resources like police, ambulance and regional
hospitals, who all supported people without insurance anyway, caused
taxes, costs and premiums to go up. Healthcare, like public schools,
public works, police, fire and ambulance services, should never be
about profit. In my 20s I was a paramedic in a medium-sized city, so
I saw first hand the abuse of the health care system.

Next time I'll discuss the Quebec language law, and our trials and
tribulations with french services.