Here’s my take on the situation:
92% chance the girl is a scam artist, or at the very least she is making up a phony story to play upon the OP’s patently obvious compulsion to “rescue” people in need.
7.99% chance the OP himself is a troll.
0.01% chance this thread doesn’t exist at all, and I’m totally hallucinating like mad right now.
If you really like her, go for it. Life is too short.
Just be careful though.
You are quite welcome. Please do be careful, however, because of the scam possibilities that are presented. I’d ask, in the spirit of the SDMB, that you keep us updated as to what happens.
FTR, I can believe the medication cost thing. If she doesn’t know how to find a women’s shelter or hotline, she doesn’t know how the government can help her with the costs if she leaves her insurance crutch man. Medication isn’t covered by default here in Canada. If she lives the lifestyle she says she does, she might also change addresses frequently. Sask Health sends me information on how much I can get subsidized measured by my previous year’s income. But if I didn’t keep my info current, I’d never get those letters.
THE STRAIGHT DOPE
Fulfilling voyeuristic appetites since 1973
(It’s taking longer than we thought)
Well this place has to serve some purpose since nobody has bothered fighting ignorance for about 8 years.
(Bolding mine … I find this to be a hilarious turn-of-phrase in a discussion about prostitutes.)
spice.mustflow, welcome to the SDMB. You’ll find this to be a great place to get a wide variety of insight from people all over the world. If you hang out here long enough, you’ll find that for almost every question or situation, there are a wide range of options and answers to consider.
One thing you should weigh carefully is that when a whole bunch of unrelated strangers start saying the same thing, you should give serious consideration to their wisdom.
At this point, you have around 44 people who have responded. I think one has said to flat-out “go for it”. Some have said, “Make sure you wear a condom”. However, the overwhelming majority of responses is, “Run away! This is a scam!”
You really should stop and ask yourself, “What am I missing that these people are seeing?”
As for me, the first red flag was a Canadian needing money for prescription drugs. Apparently, you weren’t following any of the health care articles that were in the news for the past year or so. To recap (briefly), the Canadian health care model is one of the examples of health care systems that are supposed to be superior to ours, and in particular, the low cost of their medications is often trumpeted.
I don’t want to see you get hurt, but it sounds like you are bound and determined to prove us all wrong. Good luck. You will definitely need it.
I’m with spoons … let us know how it turns out. My bet is that you will be ripped off (the abortion angle was nice … hadn’t thought of that one right off, but it sure does have possibilities.)
I don’t believe for a minute that you just happen to be traveling to Edmonton for business. I believe that you planned that trip for the express purpose of boning that girl.
Either you’re getting scammed or you’re going to take advantage of a very troubled young woman. I hope (and am 99% sure) that the former is the case. There aren’t very many illnesses that a 20 year old can suffer from that would incur any significant medication expenses in Canada.
I’ve known women like her in my life, so I think it is possible it is not a scam… Currently… But one problem with women who are sex workers, they can easily dehumanize men and quite simply she could stop seeing the OP as a friend, and start thinking of him as just a man/john who just wants one thing. The problem is feelings can change, and if they do, he could be scammed.
There are organizations all over Canada to help women in her circumstances, both abuse, and sexual exploitation & sexual abuse from being a sex worker.
The YWCA of Edmonton may also be able to help with finding services.
One aspect with the prescription drugs is by default in Alberta prescription drugs are not covered by Alberta Health Care, but if someone is low income, they can apply for government assistance if they are low income, or Blue Cross, for a highly reasonable price. Unfortunately many people are unaware of these options.
Maybe I’m just ignorant (fully acknowledge that this is probably the case), but. . . don’t they have socialized health care in Canada? I know that a lot of folks have private insurance so they don’t have to wait with the system, but . . . am I completely off base here?
To men on the interwebs.
She’d still from her sister, but not from you. Of course.
Being used by men for sex, you say? Perhaps convincing them to come visit her, give her money, and in exchange, she has sex with them and pumps up their ego a bit, non?
Of course she is. There’s nothing us 20 somethings love more than a middle aged man who falls in love with hookers on the internet with drug problems. You white knight, you.
Actually, what we have is a public health insurance plan that covers most medical procedures. Physicians don’t work for the government; they are independent businesspeople who bill the government for services rendered to a person with government coverage. There is no parallel private health insurance that covers what the public plan does.
However, the government insurance plan does not cover prescriptions (with very few exceptions, such as medications needed during a hospital stay). So, many Canadians have private supplementary insurance, such as that provided by Blue Cross; and often provided as a benefit of employment. I’m assuming that this is the insurance the OP is referring to–the ex-boyfriend’s supplementary health insurance.
Ah. Well there you go then. Told you I was 'ignant :).
What kind of insurance plan covers somebody’s girlfriend? Again, perhaps things are totally different, but I mean. . . is the ex boyfriend fully paying for her insurance? In Canada, can you put girlfriends on your insurance policies? So many questions.
I was wondering that myself, actually. I don’t think you can put girlfriends/boyfriends on your insurance plan in the states but I don’t know what things are like in Canada. I wondered if he was just paying for her insurance. Things must be pretty cool in Canada if as a prostitute, your pimp covers your health insurance…
This may depend on the plan, but I believe that if a couple is living together, it is possible. ISTR being covered by my then-girlfriend’s plan when we were living together and I was freelancing before we were married. But that was years ago; my memory may not be quite accurate and things may have changed.
The others have given excellent suggestions, but there is a very simple one that hasn’t been mentioned. Tell her to dial 211. If she gives any excuses about not even being able to do that, say bye-bye.
I’m not new to the SDMB, so I knew there would be a fair share of people who think they know it all from a brief description of hundreds of hours of interaction, but I also knew I would get the answers I needed and so thanks to everyone.
As it turns out, she beat me to the punch. She had turned to the sex-for-money again under a money crunch, but we’ve talked a lot about it and how it was making her feel bad (even before the OP), so she changed her habits and now is cutting it out. She’s decided she has to do something more constructive with her life and is looking to enter school in January.
Others have elaborated some on why the issue of prescription drugs in Canada is not as clear-cut as you might think, but I’ll add a little detail in hopes of fighting some ignorance myself. Some of her medical problems include a past battle with cancer and ongoing issues with Crohn’s disease. The major drug she takes is Remicade for the Crohn’s; it’s expensive and because it’s prepared and delivered via IV in a doctor’s office, it’s considered major medical and not covered by prescription drug coverage. She did just find out that she’s covered 100% under her father’s insurance until age 21, though, so that’s going to provide her some breathing room to make some changes in her life.
We’ve talked a lot in the past 48 hours, I’ve passed on some of the info and prodded her, and she’s aware how screwed up her life is and wants to change it. She’s talking with a social worker, though unfortunately informally as a friend-of-the-family type thing. And I may have overreacted a bit to a friend in seeming distress, but I won’t apologize for that. It’s not perfect (her blood counts may indicate a recurrence of cancer) and there’s still a long ways to go and see if there’s follow-through, but I’m much less worried now than in the OP. Thanks to everyone for listening, offering advice, and caring. You are the best.
It is covered under the province’s Alberta Blue Cross, but requires authorization. Page not found | Alberta Blue Cross®
Alberta Blue Cross insurance costs $44.45 per month for low income persons, plus up to $25.00 per prescription. Primary and Preventative Health Services | Alberta.ca
I may be thinking American, and not knowing Canadian stuff, but if she’s been living this lifestyle how is her father her insurance?
Mr. Spice, do not, under any circumstances, have sex with this woman. As someone who had…some issues, in her earlier life…don’t believe anything you haven’t seen with your own eyes. Not internet eyes, but actually your own eyes. Even if she’s taking all the steps you mentioned in your last post, she may not be mentioning other things. She may know how fucked up she is, but still be prostituting and/or smoking crack to get through it.
If you want to be the dad she never had, do you really want to be the dad that has sex with her? Because that’s gross.
Meet her in a common place, be the high school teacher that she could not convince to fuck her, give her some support and no money at all. IN A COMMON PLACE is very important - several gentlemen have died trying to support prostitutes who lured a new john to a lonely place.
And she may be all that, with a heart of gold, and I got over my old shit…but I did it on my own, calling places over and over and taking care of it ON MY OWN and making my own life. If she’s on the up and up, she can too.
Whatever you do don’t bone her.
This advice has as much chance of being utilised as anyone else’s. Zilch.
I think the law is a parent can keep a child on their insurance up until they are 21 even if the child is no longer living at home, and up to 25 if the child is enrolled in a post secondary institution.
Family coverage usually is the same price whether you have 1 child or 4 children on most plans, and compared to the US the cost of group insurance for prescription + dental, is very cheap, usually about $200 to $250 per month.
Most parents will just keep their kids on their plan, until their kids are of age because there is no financial reason to remove them.