[gameswithgo]

Canadian taxes include health insurance, possibly also obviates the need to buy a $500k house in order to be in a good school district (not sure if Canada is like this, other first world countries are) So could be a net savings.

[sbinthree]

Canada has good schools and bad schools, although not to the same degree that the US does. You pay for better schools primarily through housing. Houses in good school district cost 10-30% more.

[toasterlovin]

Canadian real estate is insane. As bad as California.

[otoburb]

Vancouver Island is much more affordable; seems like the person is willing to live away from dense urban centres. The insanity of Canadian real estate seems to be isolated to Toronto and Vancouver, although prices are predictably rising in "nearby" suburbs such as Kitchener/Waterloo (Ontario) or Langley/Surrey (near Vancouver).

[toasterlovin]

Yeah, what I mean is that, if you compare like to like, it's at insane California levels. So, in the city in Vancouver is comparable to SF. In the suburbs of Vancouver is comparable to suburbs of LA/SF. Rural land anywhere in BC is comparable to rural land in CA.

So, rural land on Vancouver island is more affordable in the sense that there are less economic opportunities that come with that land, so the land costs less to buy. Which might be a good tradeoff for somebody who doesn't need to be near a job, but is not super useful to the majority of people who do.

[jrace]

Not in every province. Here in BC we pay $75 month for a couple (was $150 a month until last Dec).

And that does not cover dental or "other" items like physio.

[driverdan]

There are plenty of good school districts in the US where a house won't cost anywhere near $500k.

[stale2002]

I don't know why every talks about the "savings" if health care.

No highly paid tech employee is paying 10s of thousands of dollars for Healthcare.

The employer is the one who pays that, and the Employee is probably paying close to nothing.

[sjg007]

Well that's a myth. If you are on an HSA you can be screwed over in one big event. Likewise with deductibles and premiums for a family on other plans you can see health care costs at $10k easily. So you can't say that no highly paid tech employee is pay 10s of thousands b/c I know a few that are.

[AndyNemmity]

When there was holes in coverage, I easily paid 10k in a year without major events. I switched to just paying a flat rate for the most coverage, so I pay up front. I think I pay what, 400 a month for 85% coverage. I'm paying quite a bit of that 10k up front, and if anything happens it's mostly covered.

Healthcare is a disaster in the US.