Personal experiences with healthcare in Canada?

No, lots of things are private but they're all elective/supplemental. All the fundamentals are public.

Actually, General Practitioners' offices are technically privately-run businesses that are publicly funded. That tends to be one of the arguments against public healthcare, that doctors' offices have been private for decades and it hasn't spelled the end of the system and we could allow for more private clinics and hospitals.

But the problem with that is NAFTA: if we start privatising any part of the healthcare system, we'd be obligated to let American companies set up shop too. And many of us aren't comfortable with American corporations controlling something as fundamental as healthcare. They already have Tim Horton's for chrissakes.

[Edited on Apr 07, 2005 by troglodyte]

If you really want it you're probably rich. And then you can just go a pricey clinic in the States if you'd really like to.

In Ontario, at least, to be eligible for a health card (and thus public health benefits), you must::
1) Be a Canadian citizen or a landed immigrant
2) Have your primary residence in Ontario
3) Spend 5 months of the year in Ontario

I suspect most provinces have similar requirements.

You can't get Beechams powders in Canada or that might just be Halifax.

Update: Well, averyone, I was finally able to present my report yesterday (Wed, 4/13) and it went very well. Everyone was impressed with the personal aspect I was able to bring, thanks to all of you.
As I said before, the next time I'm in Canada, anybody who wants to meet up, gets a martini (or whatever).

Xavery, I'm sorry to hear about your experiences. If it's any consolation, things are still not that bad, comparatively. The average emergency room wait (that's even before being shown to a room) in most urban areas in the U.S. is 9 hours.

Private doesn't deal with delays much better.

[Edited on Apr 14, 2005 by skeptik]