General Discussion

I'm Canadian and my wife is American. About 13 years ago we moved back to Ontario, settling into Mississauga, a rather large suburb of Toronto. Being a Canadian citizen I automatically had health insurance. My wife did not, she had to wait until she got her permanent resident card and then she would be in.
Before she got her card she had a very bad stomach/body attack. She has a lot going on, lupus, lots of stomach issues etc. When her body attacks her it can be debilitating.
Anyway, she had one and we had no choice but to take her to the ER. When we checked in, because of her status we had to pay a $300 emergency room fee. After that, she was taken in and they ran a ton of tests on her, gave her all kinds of meds for pain etc. We were there for about 18 hours.
After things settled and she was better we went home. ON the way home, I was still in American health costs in my head and said to my wife that I was a little frightened about the impending bill. We reasoned that we'll figure it out, but it had to be done.
About 2 weeks later, a bill came in the mail from the hospital. Slowly I ripped it open expecting to see some crazy 5 figure bill.
Turns out, it was $1300 buck or there abouts.
I mean what she went through, the tests, the medications etc, I would wager if that had happened here in America, that would have cost at least $20/25K easily.
We were very relieved.
This is not to say that the Canadian Health care system doesn't need work. It does need a ton of work done and more money like most health care systems. But for me, at least they're trying.