Canada has publicly funded health care. How it's funded and what exactly is covered varies somewhat from province to province. I'm in Ontario, so that's what I'll write about. Healthcare is funded through a combination of general taxes and a supplemental healthcare levy, paid with your taxes. It's indexed to income. If your income is under 24,000 you don't pay anything. I earn about 25,000 so I pay $200 annually. The maximum for most people is $900, but I think it goes up, if you earn over 100,000 but I'm not sure of the calculation.

For that all hospital services are covered as are all visits to MD's. Most tests, x-rays, mammograms etc. are covered, unless you need them for a third party like work, in which case they're not covered.

Dental is not covered which to me is a big flaw. Drugs are not covered unless your on Ontario Disability Support Payments, in which case you are. For the working poor, there's a drug plan "Trillium" that pays for your drugs, once the drugs get to be over 4% of your net income. So I pay an annual deductable, quarterly, of about $90. Otherwise all my drugs are covered.

Another big flaw in the system is mental health care. Psychologists, social workers and councillors are not covered, unless you have private insurance through work. That's how most people get dental coverage as well. And even then visists are severely limited. This keeps a lot of people from getting help.

Access to care varies, from region to region. I live in a major metropolitan area, and have superb care. I've got a great family Dr., referals to specialists typically take about 2 weeks, speciallized tests are usually done within 48 -72 hours and I have an amazing psychiatrist who I see once a month, more frequently when I'm in crisis. The same is not true in rural Canada where many people don't have a family Dr., and access to specialists can be rare or take a long time, or require significant travel.

I'm very happy with the healthcare I receive and there's no way I could have afforded the rehab and psych admissions I've had in the past several years if I had to pay out of pocket.

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