In Quebec, the medicare is dysfunctional. Everything was fine for my wife and me until our family doctor retired during the pandemic. We were put on waiting lists to be assigned family physicians. My wife was assigned one after about 16 months. And he withdrew from the public system about 15 months. We will use him for reasons I will explain but it costs $275 for a visit. Add $30 for taxis since parking is impossible near his office. Meantime she has been on the wait list for a GP for getting onto 3 years. She has been assigned something called a family medicine group, but that is downtown with even less parking so add $60 for taxis and she doesn’t see the same doctor twice. She is 87 and has increasing memory problems.
On the other hand, about two months ago, she slipped off the end of her bed and was not able to get up nor could I lift her. I finally called 9-1-1 and they came (eventually in a couple hours because it was not a medical emergency), got her up, gave her a physical exam (including a cardiogram) and left–no charge.
I was also assigned a doctor. I really think she was not competent. You don’t give an 85 yo a PSA test and then freak at a reading of around 10. The urologist she insisted I see laughed and said that for someone my age, he doesn’t have any concern until the reading exceeds 20, then amended that to maybe 30. It was clear he also thought she shouldn’t have ordered the test. Six months later she moved to private practice. Soon I was assigned to a different FMG, also downtown. I saw him; he was just finishing his first year as an intern. I saw him a few times, but he finished last June and left.
The real point of all this is that the system is badly understaffed and the government is not about to spend the money needed to repair it.
Out of pocket costs to have CGM and and sensors and monitoring is about $1500usd. Monthly
Not including the insulin.
Type 1 is permanent. It’s actually a disability. You cannot be cured. I am shocked the CGM is not covered by UHC. It’s proving to be a lifesaver.
The drug company’s offer discounts. The Diabetic Assc. will help. An accredited diabetes clinic can possibly help. They get massive donations from drug companies and salesmen.
Yeah. This person isn’t trying hard enough. Or possibly doesn’t know. I’m not sure how a T1 diabetic wouldn’t know.
@Sylvanz contact the national association for the disorder you need inhalers for. I know there’s an Asthma assc. Probably a COPD assc.
Get on one of their programs. Maybe coupons or actual product. Or some advice for substitutions.(That you and your doc agree on)
ETA, she doesn’t need the pods to live. She can always inject. It’s just so much fun to have borg devices stuck to you\s. I don’t know they are very convenient. It’s true.
AFAIK, that chart shows only the out-of-pocket costs for a drug, not the overall cost. Some/many/all of these figures may be a result of subsidies, which you could say is a societal cost, not a personal one, but it still is a cost. Hiding, delaying, or ignoring this cost provides misleading figures; that subsidy has to come from somewhere, and probably it is you. It’s just not out-of-pocket.
Typical things that private medical insurance (commonly offered through a person’s work) would cover: drugs, dental procedures, chiropractic procedures, dentures, eye tests and eyeglasses, covering the costs of private hospital rooms or ambulance rides.
I’m not familiar with insurance that would pay for a fancier hip replacement than the public system would pay for (say), but maybe it exists.
Canadian healthcare is broader but shallower than American. That is, it covers EVERYONE the same, whereas in the U.S., if you have good insurance, yay; if you don’t, or have none, too bad. Period.
Might want to avoid “UHC” for “Universal Health Care” since in the U.S. it tends to mean UNITED Health Care
As various folks have indicated, Canadian healthcare is suffering from shortage of providers. This is surely not helped by having the for-profit U.S. right next door, encouraging some to move south to make more money. Even a provider whose main motivation is helping people (most of them, I still believe) isn’t going to be opposed to a better standard of living!
ObAnecdote: 20 years ago, my mother in Ontario had a spinal problem. The only spine doc where she lived–in the 10th largest metropolitan area in Canada–was an old, cranky dude who seemed to dislike women. He was curt to my mother and downright rude to my sister, who had taken her to the appointment.
In any case, he wanted to do surgery. My sister got a copy of the report and sent it to me, and I emailed it to my ortho here in the U.S., who was a good guy (******* retired on me since then! The nerve!). I included the caveat that I of course wasn’t expecting him to diagnose her remotely, but rather asking, “If this is the correct DX, is this SX indicated?” and he surprised me by calling me. He told me that not only was that the correct procedure, but that this was one of the times when she was better off medically in Canada, because of her age: “In this country, you’d have trouble finding a doctor willing to risk that surgery, because Medicare reimbursement would be poor and it’s relatively high risk” (she was about 80 at the time, in reasonable health for her age, but still).
She had the SX, it was successful, and she had another good six years before something else felled her. And of course the largest cost to any of us was parking at the hospital!
I am aware that there is a company called UnitedHealthCare, but I’ve never heard it called UHC… which isn’t surprising, as they don’t advertise or anything.
They’re national, but unless you are old enough to be on Medicare, and don’t have United as your insurer, you’re unlikely to get mailings from them.
Most of their TV ads are for their Medicare Advantage plans, which, again, are going to often be clustered on stations which tend to get watched by older folks.
