<p>If I were an American I would be bankrupt because of my daughter&rsquo;s health. I own my business. It is a consulting firm focused on new business start ups. My government provides me with healthcare coverage for my entire family. That coverage includes doctor care, hospitalization, referrals, and yes, even visits to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.</p> <p>I was gainfully employed by a company when my daughter was born in 1984 with a serious medical condition. I took a leave of absence and found myself pink slipped on my return to work. I had been with my company for 13 years and this was hardly expected. With my daughter in hospital I went looking for work and over the years found jobs where I stayed for short periods of time until I opened my own practice in 1989.</p> <p>During those first 5 years of my daughter&rsquo;s life she spent as much time in hospital as at home. She had surgery, multiple bouts of pneumonia, and many other life threatening medical lapses. Her entire medical treatment costs, amounting to in excess of $500,000 were paid by my government. I didn&rsquo;t have that money. As it was the money that I spent on getting my wife parent relief nearly bankrupted us. That wasn&rsquo;t covered under the government health plan.</p> <p>Since 1989 I have run my own business and bought supplementary health insurance to cover those things that Canada&rsquo;s single payer plan don&rsquo;t cover. Primarily that includes dental, drugs and non-traditional health providers. The system is far from perfect but I do not fear going broke doing the right things for my family. It is interesting that while the government covers my daughter for her medical needs, the private supplementary insurance provider will not. So for my daughter&rsquo;s dental and drugs I pay out of pocket. Fortunately she is doing well right now, at age 24, and these costs are minimal.</p> <p>The total cost of her 3 heart procedures, hospitalizations, other surgical procedures, a visit to the Mayo Clinic, and numerous appointments with lung, heart, nutritional, psychiatric, and other specialists, amounting to well over $1.5 million in her life has cost me the income and other taxes I pay every year. When I have had very good years financially and my taxes have been high I feel in some way that I am paying back my country for keeping my daughter alive.</p> <p>The animated and angry debate in the United States over whether or not to implement a public health program, a Medicare for all, puzzles me. To me this is a &ldquo;no brainer.&rdquo; No one in a country like the United States should have to worry about going without care and dying because they cannot pay their medical bill. I don&rsquo;t have a big company behind me to provide me with benefits. I have my practice and the income it earns. I have my government with a plan that makes it possible for me to not have to worry about catastrophic illness, about losing my benefits if I lose my job, about paying a medical bill that could ruin my family financially.</p> 2009-08-22T23:16:49Z 2009-08-23T23:06:51Z -1.06121 7799 6071 true 8 10835 the-canadian-healthcare-experience-from-an-entrepreneurs-perspective 360 2009-08-24T06:06:08Z 2009-08-23T23:06:51Z

This article provides a perspective on the Canadian healthcare system and what it has meant to a small business consultant and entrepreneur and his family.

1 2009-09-13T08:37:40Z