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by tonyarkles 3079 days ago
Just for reference, 40% tax is still high for a country with nationalized health care (Canada):

https://simpletax.ca/calculator

At $150k/yr, your marginal tax rate is close to 40%, but your overall tax rate is more like 31%. I'm in Saskatchewan, and every time I've played with different income levels, taking into account the exchange rate, we end up paying very similar amounts of all-in income tax, with ours including (most) health care. (Comparing with California)
1 comments
robotresearcher 3079 days ago
Once you consider the typical US co-payments to actually use health care, it's cheaper in Canada. Getting an MRI in California cost me close to $1K out of pocket, despite fancy insurance that paid most of it. In Canada it's pre-paid in taxes.
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tonyarkles 3079 days ago
Also when you consider that we don't have to pay anything for insurance to cover that. The MRI costs $0 out of pocket, covered by the healthcare that is already factored into our equal-cost taxes.

There's still a benefit to having health insurance for covering stuff not covered by the gov't plan: vision, dental, some fraction of prescription drugs, etc. I do have a health plan through work, but I think it costs somewhere around $50-75/month to cover all of that stuff for my family.

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robotresearcher 3078 days ago
Absolutely. If you add decent insurance to income taxes as a basic cost of living, it's cheaper in Canada. I moved to Canada from California and even before becoming a permanent resident I needed to use the health service as a family member was sick. I will be forever grateful for the excellent service and zero cost at point of use even for my family as (tax paying) temporary workers. I'm now raising Canadian kids to do their part to pay back the system that saved their mother's life.
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tonyarkles 3078 days ago
It's pretty wild. At one point, I forgot to renew my health card and had a bit of a fall that tweaked my wrist. I went to the clinic by my house and they warned me that I'd have to pay out-of-pocket for the services, but I could submit the receipt after renewing my health card and get reimbursed.

Doc felt my wrist, asked me to go to the radiology clinic next door for a digital X-Ray, and to come back to discuss what he saw on it. Doctor visit: $30, X-Ray: $30.

When the two options are: use your provincial health card or pay cash, costs can stay relatively low.

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