Before leaving, I was advised to get an extra $1,000,000 in coverage. As it was explained to me, our government medical here would only cover things down there to the point of the costs up here. Apparently, up here at the time an overnight stay in a hospital bed cost about $200. Down there, it was $2,000. “…and after then, do you want a nurse to come when you press the button? Do you want pain meds? Etc.” Apparently those were all extras.

I did have to visit the emergency room twice. Once I was injured at my job, and the state’s worker’s comp covered it (I worked for the state, so I’m not sure if that covers all workers). The other time, I twisted a knee that I had already injured in Canada but not had diagnosed. A trip to the emergency room for X-rays and to be sent home an hour later with a cardboard splint cost $2,000 (the bill passed through my hands on the way to the insurance company). Then a few days later I got a $300 bill for them having a specialist review the X-ray a few days later.

A few days later I visited an orthopedic surgeon who was a family friend after, he wanted to repair the ACL in my knee down there for “only $35,000″. He gave me that “deal” because he didn’t want me to have to get in repaired under the barbaric conditions we have up here, he truly believed stories from his professional organizations about us being 20 years behind. Needless to say, I got it repaired here instead for $0.

My grandfather whom I was living with was American, and was covered in his retirement by an old fashioned full plan by the paper mill where he had worked. They don’t offer that plan to current employees anymore. He had heart problems, and my grandmother’s estimates his surgeries and hospital visits totaled over $1 million. He would have died decades before he did without that no longer offered plan. Included on the bills from the hospitals would be $45 for the box of Kleenex in your room, even though it would be the half empty box for which each of the three patients before you were also billed, and for which the next guy would also be paying. It would piss my Canadian grandmother off so much that she would make sure to take home everything for which they were billed, even if insurance was paying for it in the end.

Keep in mind that all the prices I quoted above will have another 15+ years of inflation tacked on top. So part of the issue is not only a lack of universal coverage; but also a lack of price control.