I'm in Canada and we don't have a totally public system, it's really more mixed public and private insurance.

Each province receivers ferderal Health expenditure transfers from the federal gov't which do not cover all provincial health care expenses. So each province funds healthcare a little differently. ON does it through a combination of private individual taxation, and corporate taxation (The Employer Health Tax) Private citizens do not see the EHT. The personal health care premium is linked to income and is paid when taxes are filed. I pay $700 / year.

But public insurance only covers some services - it covers the services of any MD, hospitalization, eye exams if you're under 18 or over 65, and meds when you're in the hospital. It does, in ON cover psychologists or other counselling, medications dispensed by a pharmacy outside of a hospital, pysiotherapy, or dental care.

For those services hope you have a good job at a decent sized company with a good benefits plan. I do. I pay about $80 a month in premiums and my company pays the rest. For this I get 100% drug reimbursement, semi-private hospital coverage, 100% dental reimbursement to a maximum of $2,500 a year, and up to $1000 a year for things like psychologists, chiro, physiotherapy, etc. But lots of the working poor don't have this supplementary coverage.

If you're on welfare or Ontario Disability Supports or are a senior over 65 you get a drug card that will cover your meds. But the list of meds covered is limited. Welfare and ODSP only cover emergency dental.

The mixed system works well in Canada provided you're in a well paying permanent job with full benefits, unfortunately those jobs are dissapearing leaving lots of people with gaps in coverage.

Overal I'd say that the provincial health care does provide decent coverage. I've seen a neurologist - had EEG, and CAT Scans, an oncologist as well as my family dr., been hospitalized for 4 days for alocohol withdrawl, and 7 weeks inpatient at a psych hospital. I've also completed publically funded rehab twice, all at no cost to me beyond the $700 I pay annually. I think I'm getting a pretty good deal.

--splitimage