As someone who’s lived in Britain and immigrated to the US, trust me when I tell you the INS (and now USCIS) is about a million times worse than the UK Border Agency or HM Customs & Immigration or whatever it’s called now.
It is too cold in Canada!
Seriously? You think the USA is the only country with immigration rules? If so, why don’t all the Mexicans simply go to Canada?
Every country has immigration rules… except maybe Somalia since it has no government.
Are you sure it’s inter-provincial billing by health care provider? That seems grossly inefficient. Better would be to work it out on an aggregate, provincial level.
I’ve done that as well…but then it was pre-9/11 so things might have changed. I can’t believe anybody could be as soulless as UK Immigration. But that’s probably a question for IMHO.
I believe that’s how it’s done. Individual providers bill the local provincial insurance plan for all services for all patients. The provincial plan then looks after billing the plans of other provinces as necessary.
Nobody in Britain ever asked me if I planned to practice polygamy, that’s all I’m saying.
I was 13, for the record.
Nearly every country is at least somewhat selective about who gets to stay. In fact, most countries (Canada and the US included) are quite selective about who gets to come in the first place.
For example, an Indian person must apply to a US consulate or embassy for a visa before they can so much as think about going on vacation to the US. Similarly, an American has to apply at an Indian consulate or embassy for a visa before visiting India.
As a British citizen, I could visit the US whenever I liked, sans visa, but only for two weeks. Same with Canada (although I think I get a month there).
That’s just for a vacation. To emigrate almost anywhere you at least have to pay a hefty fee and fill out many large forms, and generally you have to sit through hours of interviews.
Not that you were intending to suggest otherwise, but the process of getting a US Visa for an Indian and an Indian visa for an American is light-and-day different. As some posters are admittedly uninformed about the process, I should point out:
One is a pro forma act; the other is quite arduous.
night. not light. 
If we can make passive-solar housing work here, we can make it work anywhere!
I recently applied for an Indian visa on my US passport, along with my wife. While I am sure it was easier than Indians applying for a US visa, we were almost declined because we could not prove that my wife lives with me - eg she is not listed on our power or water bills.
We’ve applied for residency visas in Georgia, Czech Republic and UAE, and our passports have tourist visas for Iran, Yemen, Sudan, China, Cambodia, Laos, Uganda, Thailand (extended stay), Syria, Armenia and DR Congo.
Taking into account all the above, getting the Indian visa was the largest hassle.
Weird. I grew up in North Carolina, and moved to Canada. I’ve kept my US citizenship, but am now a Official Canuck. We’re like alternative universe doppelgangers, Polycarp
To answer the OP’s question
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Canadian immigration takes years, and you have to be bringing something to the table. There’s a point system that takes into account education, employment, Canadian spouse etc.
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American tourists routinely come to parts of Canada to ski, get treatment after they break something, or are otherwise unwell, and then piss off, never to pay up. I have a friend who is an ER doc, who tells a story where the patient says “how do I pay?” and the doc says, “well, take these forms and fill them out, then contact your insurance, and get them to contact us, blah blah blah”. Then the doc and the patient look at each other, both knowing that this will never ever happen. The patient then says “How does $50 sound?”, and the doc says “Fine”. I think the cash wound up in the ER pizza kitty.
This is fine for a broken wrist, but doesn’t do much for lymphoma. I think Desert Nomad has a thread running on this exact issue, since he left the US due to health care issues.
Canada, like other countries, has immigration laws that favor people who can be productive members of their society. Sick people have an obvious disadvantage in finding work.
Long-distance moves are not cheap. Sick, uninsured people are also likely to not have much money.
Some people don’t like moving away from all of their family and friends. If your illness makes it hard or impossible for you to do something like drive a car, there’s a practical reason why you might want people who know you and are willing to help you living near you.
Some people might prefer somewhere where it doesn’t snow. I can totally understand that, right now. Some illnesses and injuries might make it even harder to cope with cold and snow than it is for most people.
It’s quite possible to love a country and be proud of being a citizen of that country while thinking that that country should do one or more things differently. We all manage to love people without loving every single thing they do (example: your spouse or SO probably does something that you don’t like). It shouldn’t be too surprising when we can do the same with countries.
Yeah, that’s probably how it’s done. I remember when I (briefly) did some medical billing, we did have to do something different with out of province billings.
As an aside (hopefully not a full out hijack), but say an American is visiting Toronto and he’s struck with a ruptured appendix. I’m sure he’s not going to be denied treatment, but I wonder what the charge would be, and how does that charge match up with the cost in the USA.
I’ve also known of people who have moved from one US state to another because of differences in medical coverage between the states. That would be much easier than moving to Canada, since you already have citizenship and all.
I am not sure about Canada, but if this happened in Kuwait, the cost would be zero.
You would need to consult the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) Schedule of Benefits for the correct dollar figure. I am unsure if this document is freely available on the Web, but you may wish to look for it.
I was involved in a rewrite of the Schedule about twenty years or so ago, and I do recall that buried somewhere in it were provisions for accepting private insurance plans from American and other foreign visitors. I don’t know how things have changed in the years since (and I’m sure there have been changes), but I don’t recall that OHIP services were meant to be provided free to foreigners simply because collecting from foreign insurers was a hassle–procedurally, foreign patients were asked for their insurance; and if they had none, arrangements would be made for cash/credit card payments, and/or subsequent billing. Still, based on my recollection of what was discussed around the office, the procedure costs in the Schedule were much less than those for similar procedures in the US, so American insurers (and uninsured Americans) generally didn’t have too many complaints about paying for services provided in Ontario. As I said though, there have most likely been changes in the last twenty or so years, and this may all be different nowadays.
http://www.health.gov.on.ca/english/providers/program/ohip/sob/physserv/physserv_mn.html
Yep. $535.00 for a c-section.
If I could move I would! US healthcare is awful. Get really sick to find out how bad it is.