bitermc wrote:You guys also have Canadian healthcare, which is a good return for your taxes.
I hear that a lot, but the "return" on our taxes is completely detached from the reality on the ground here. A simple search will show you that roughly 6 million Canadians don’t even have a family doctor anymore. In major cities, you’re often relegated to walk-in clinics or sitting in an ER for 12–18 hours just to see someone.
As I mentioned above, I lived in the States, and even after paying 8k a year for high-quality health insurance out of pocket, my purchasing power was still way higher than it is in Canada. Those here who can afford it actually end up paying for private care or traveling to the States, Mexico, Cuba, Europe, or Asia just to get things done because our waitlists for specialists are months or years long.
Last year alone, over 100,000 Canadians left the country to pay for medical treatment elsewhere. Until you look outside that bubble, it's hard to realize that "free" doesn't mean much when you can't actually access the system when you need it.