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There are a whole bunch of things I find troubling about your comment. - Minimum wage in Canada != minimum wage in the U.S. - Economy in Canada != economy in

There are a whole bunch of things I find troubling about your comment. - Minimum wage in Canada != minimum wage in the U.S. - Economy in Canada != economy in U.S. - Canada has free health care, blunting the impact of a low wage job without benefits (as opposed to the U.S. where a lack of health insurance can be devastating) - Not everyone with a minimum wage job is able to work all the hours they would like to work. And that is without touching on whether or not you think a 54 hour work week is a reasonable thing to ask someone, possibly with children, to be working at some unfulfilling minimum wage job.

redthrowaway 15y ago
>Canada has free health care, blunting the impact of a low wage job without benefits Health care isn't free, it's just heavily subsidized. Depending on your province, you can expect to pay about $750 a year to cover your end of basic coverage. Vision, dental, and prescriptions aren't covered, and most people have supplementary coverage for them. Of course, for low wage earners and students there are various programs in place that can drop the amount you pay to basically nil. There's no deductible for most things (doctors, er, surgery, etc) either, which is handy.
- nknight 15y ago
  > $750 a year to cover your end of basic coverage That might as well be free. I pay almost $7,000/year in California for good (by US standards) medical coverage. That includes some prescription coverage, but not vision or dental. I'm in a low-risk age group, I'll let you guess what my premiums would look like if I were, say, 50. :)
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- AgentConundrum 15y ago
  > Depending on your province, you can expect to pay about $750 a year to cover your end of basic coverage. Are you referring to the amount of tax that goes toward support of the healthcare system, or out-of-pocket expenses? If it's the latter, can you tell me which provinces those are so that I can avoid them? I lived in Ontario from birth until I was 21, and have lived in Nova Scotia since then. Outside of minor costs like the uninsured portions of my dental work and prescriptions (I know there's a word for this, but I don't know it off hand), I've never had to pay for my healthcare. Supplemental coverage - as you said, vision, dental, and drugs - are typically provided by your employer. I don't really know how many people buy extra on top of that. Maybe when you have kids it becomes more important, but I'm not there yet. I will definitely agree with your "health care isn't free" statement. It's surprising how many people seem to think it is free in Canada, but it's just a much less noticeable cost. It's rolled in with our taxes, so we just don't think about how much of our tax will go for healthcare. It's just tax. "Out of sight; out of mind" and all that.
  - redthrowaway 15y ago
    In BC, when I turned 26 and was booted off my mom's (excellent) healthcare plan, I got a bill from MSP for $750. As I'm still in school and my current 8 month co-op is evenly split between this and next year, thus making my earnings in either year insufficient to pay tax, that will drop to basically $0 once I fill out the proper forms. Still, that's on top of the ~$300/year for my student health plan, so while a bargain it's still not negligible. It's about the same as a basic plan for an iPhone, and people have no trouble complaining about that.
    - AgentConundrum 15y ago
      I think I knew that BC had a pay program like that, but it just seems foreign to me. OHIP and MSI are entirely covered by taxes, so I've never had to pay the government for my healthcare directly.

redthrowaway 15y ago

>Canada has free health care, blunting the impact of a low wage job without benefits Health care isn't free, it's just heavily subsidized. Depending on your province, you can expect to pay about $750 a year to cover your end of basic coverage. Vision, dental, and prescriptions aren't covered, and most people have supplementary coverage for them. Of course, for low wage earners and students there are various programs in place that can drop the amount you pay to basically nil. There's no deductible for most things (doctors, er, surgery, etc) either, which is handy.

nknight 15y ago
> $750 a year to cover your end of basic coverage That might as well be free. I pay almost $7,000/year in California for good (by US standards) medical coverage. That includes some prescription coverage, but not vision or dental. I'm in a low-risk age group, I'll let you guess what my premiums would look like if I were, say, 50. :)
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
AgentConundrum 15y ago
> Depending on your province, you can expect to pay about $750 a year to cover your end of basic coverage. Are you referring to the amount of tax that goes toward support of the healthcare system, or out-of-pocket expenses? If it's the latter, can you tell me which provinces those are so that I can avoid them? I lived in Ontario from birth until I was 21, and have lived in Nova Scotia since then. Outside of minor costs like the uninsured portions of my dental work and prescriptions (I know there's a word for this, but I don't know it off hand), I've never had to pay for my healthcare. Supplemental coverage - as you said, vision, dental, and drugs - are typically provided by your employer. I don't really know how many people buy extra on top of that. Maybe when you have kids it becomes more important, but I'm not there yet. I will definitely agree with your "health care isn't free" statement. It's surprising how many people seem to think it is free in Canada, but it's just a much less noticeable cost. It's rolled in with our taxes, so we just don't think about how much of our tax will go for healthcare. It's just tax. "Out of sight; out of mind" and all that.
- redthrowaway 15y ago
  In BC, when I turned 26 and was booted off my mom's (excellent) healthcare plan, I got a bill from MSP for $750. As I'm still in school and my current 8 month co-op is evenly split between this and next year, thus making my earnings in either year insufficient to pay tax, that will drop to basically $0 once I fill out the proper forms. Still, that's on top of the ~$300/year for my student health plan, so while a bargain it's still not negligible. It's about the same as a basic plan for an iPhone, and people have no trouble complaining about that.
  - AgentConundrum 15y ago
    I think I knew that BC had a pay program like that, but it just seems foreign to me. OHIP and MSI are entirely covered by taxes, so I've never had to pay the government for my healthcare directly.