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Canada reports a blowout payroll number, adding 40K jobs vs. an estimated of 5K. The...
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Friday, January 4, 9:24 AM ETCanada reports a blowout payroll number, adding 40K jobs vs. an estimated of 5K. The unemployment rate slips to a 4-year low of 7.1% vs. 7.3% expected. This follows November's even-bigger blowout job gains of 59.3K. The loonie gains about half a cent vs. the greenback, now buying $1.0142.
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Gee, do you think the fact that Canada has a single payor health care system, rather than sticking employers with the costs of health care for employees AND their families, inflated 20-30% by the private insurers' profit margins, might have anything to do with it?
Just wondering.
Canada's health care system is funded through many different systems. British Columbia has a health premium paid monthly, where as some Provincies have a payroll tax. Others have health care tax levies on employeers. Its different right across the country. I live in BC so my costs are 64 dollars a month. The rest is funded by the Province, which is running huge deficits. However, its nice to know i won't go bankrupt if i get in a car accident and require massive sugeries. Its also nice that i don't have deductables to get treatment.
As others have already noted that the universal publically funded health care plans in each of Canada's Provinces and Territories, while they cover a broad array of health care and hospital services out of general Federal and Provincial tax revenue (supplemented somewhat in some Provinces by relatively modest premiums paid by individuals (often, under collective or other employment agreements, paid by those individuals' employers), do not generally cover drug and dental benefits or services beyond an adequate but basic level. It follows that about 30% of the cost of medical services in Canada is paid for outside the basic Provincial and Territorial plans; generally by the individual seeking those services or the employers of those individuals. On the other hand, the cost efficiencies achieved under the public plans help set the market place for private insurance schemes for supplemental service coverage. The bottom line is that, aside from the medical coverage advantages for Canadians as a whole, two significant advantages flow for the Canadian economy compared to that of the US:
1. The Canadian economy expends approximately 5% of GDP less than does the US for medical services.
2. Many Canadian industries, automotive manufacturing being a prime example, have significantly lower employee and retiree health care benefits costs than their US counterparts.
Don't let the numbers and the politicians fool you, it's still tough for the younger generation to find meaningful employment.
http://bit.ly/UoGh82
a lot of countries have single-payer and they have high unemployment. people should be responsible for their own insurance. not business. government and insurance companies need to get out of the way and let people purchase services directly. it's the only thing that would put downward pressure on the price.