Americans Not Allowed Travel To Canada

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(mojo @ Feb 25 2007, 04:30 PM) [snapback]396346[/snapback]</div>

The press here says it's a 'tit for tat' to bring attention to the US policy on passports and border crossing which are causing unnecessary hardship for many CAN and US travelers.

As a dually Amer-Can my take on the health care issue is that universal health care is balanced by lower quality care overall. An acceptable trade off I think if you feel that everyone has a basic right to healthcare regardless of ability to pay. A bit like paying more for a cleaner car because I can afford it.

From the land of no weather (seems like the border blocks weather radar on US television)

cheers

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Beryl Octet @ Feb 24 2007, 06:48 AM) [snapback]395771[/snapback]</div>

Ummm...hey gang...this is NOT new--Canada has been blocking DUI offenders for MANY years, unless you are...
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Beryl Octet @ Feb 24 2007, 08:07 AM) [snapback]395807[/snapback]</div>

(CHENEY has 2? I missed that somewhere along the line.) Dubya, who has one (that I know of). They let HIM in.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(hyo silver @ Feb 24 2007, 10:36 AM) [snapback]395881[/snapback]</div>

Yup, things HAVE been getting tighter than they were--in both directions, but the DUI type stuff came long before 9/11 and all that. OTOH--there's also "don't ask, don't tell." I've had a brush or two with the law, and, somehow, they've not picked it up from either my passport or my driver's license...then again, I also don't volunteer the info that I may or may not be going to visit my Amer. draft dodger friend in Montreal, who has been a college teacher there for around 35 years. And the last time I crossed by car into Canada (into Ontario, in November), and asked where I was going, and I reeled off names, addresses and phone numbers of several people in Ontario and Montreal, it DID pique their curiosity. They seemed a tad nonplussed when I told 'em I'd lived in Montreal from when I was 8 until I was 19. Yes, as a US citizen. Yes with both parents as US citizens. Whatever...it all worked. They did NOT ask if I had any sort of a criminal-type background, so why would I volunteer it?



<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Sufferin' Prius Envy @ Feb 24 2007, 04:34 PM) [snapback]395981[/snapback]</div>

Yeah, SPE, it IS better--if you get sick, you get help. I had appendicitis at 17. My family had only just about got past the stage of heavily depending on stuff like greenstamps. I had a semi-private room. The whole thing cost my family something around $17, because of the tv my family let me have, as I was hospitalized over New Year's.
Here, we are more than a little concerned that my husband's health plan is about to kick out our 19 year old son, and we're not quite sure how we're going to manage any kind of health insurance for him.

Way better? Hell yes. Oh dear, you'll probably have to wait for any kind of elective surgery--but you'll get it. What about here, where people die while the bean counters at the insurance companies fight--the doctors AND their patients--to not pay for NON-elective surgery? Yeah, we got a really great system here. Where in the Constitution is it written that children MUST be supplied with health care on a regular basis, regardless of whether or not their parents can afford it? Nah, morality hasn't got a thing to do with it, does it?

And, just for the record--it isn't just illegals driving up the cost of health care to keep the insurance companies fat and happy...it's all the people who just plain can't afford regular health care, so are forced to resort to going to an ER for what SHOULD be routine--because a regular doc CAN turn 'em away--ERs aren't allowed to. That population does not just include those living below or near the poverty line. There are lots of middle class folks who, for one reason or another, just can't afford to pay the insurance companies' bean counters in addition to (and often, before) the doctors.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(DaveinOlyWA @ Feb 25 2007, 08:28 AM) [snapback]396210[/snapback]</div>

If you have been convicted of a crime that in Canada would have been punishable by a prison term, you might be excluded. There's still an element of discretion involved. Note that I have multiple convictions for trespass and one for damage to property, several jail terms, and a six-month prison term, and after some paperwork at the border, I was issued a letter saying that I would never be excluded from Canada for those crimes.

The chances of you (Dave) being excluded are minimal.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(galaxee @ Feb 25 2007, 09:02 AM) [snapback]396229[/snapback]</div>

A bit of insight some folks might not be aware of: Doctors and hospitals regularly charge uninsured people double what they charge insurance companies.

I just got the EOBs (explanation of benefits) from my insurance company for my heart surgery. There's about a dozen pages, none of them decently itimized (most of the items merely say either "medical care" or "hospital care," and I have not received the actual bills from the providers yet. And I have not bothered to add up all the dozen or so pages. But the big item is a page that appears to be for the basic hospital bill. Note that this is not the bill itself, but only the EOB from the insurance company:

Charges billed by provider: $26,914.03 (This is what I'd have paid if I was uninsured.)
Minus provider's fee adjustment: $17,132.13 (This is the discount the provider gives the insurance company.)
Minus your copay, deductible, or amount not covered: $890.35
Total amount eligible for benefits: $8,891.55
Minus your coinsurance amount: $2,667.47
Total paid by your plan: $6,224.08
Amount you're responsible for: $3,557.82.

I had to pay the hospital $1,500 before the operation.
I am responsible for $3,557.82, which I assume is in addition to the above.
The insurance company paid $6,224.08.

The hospital will therefore receive $11,281.90.

But if you, as a person without health insurance, had the same procedure, you'd have to pay the hospital $26,914.03, which is more than double the amount my insurance company and I will pay altogether.

Not only do uninsured people get no help with their medical bills, they have to pay more than twice as much for the same procedure as the insured.

(The other EOBs are for much smaller amounts, mostly in the tens or hundreds, but all follow a similar pattern of huge discounts for being insured.)

We are a barbaric country.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(daniel @ Mar 3 2007, 05:25 PM) [snapback]399698[/snapback]</div>

It's negotiable.

When my daughter was born, our preferred provider hospital was not the hospital of choice of my wife's obstetrician. His office advised us to go their preferred hospital and talk to them. Not only did that hospital agree to match the preferred provider's rates, they offered - and we accepted their offer - to write off the co-payment. It saved us a couple of thousand dollars.

Live and learn.