I live a large part of the year outside of Canada and so I often forget what a fantastic country it is. My mom and aunt flew out from Edmonton and Calgary to help me get ready for the baby and the inevitable changes that are coming very very quickly. They were telling me about their medical coverage and how much the pay for certain services. I'm pretty impressed with how little money they are required to pay.
As an non-resident expat I don't have Canadian medical. I pay an exorbitant amount of money to be protected for everything from organ transplants and dental to the delivery of a child. In Japan the delivery will cost about ¥500,000 (about $5,023 CDN) my medical covers most of that but I will pay about $500CDN by the end of it. This includes the delivery, some post-natal classes and 5 days in the hospital; they don't believe in sending the mother home the next day after the delivery in Japan.
Japanese families must pay for the delivery. The city will give nearly half of the costs back but these families are expected to come up with about $3,000 CDN. That is a lot of money to come up with when you are starting a new family and one of the income producers is now out of work. I'm sure this may play a small part in the birthrate being so low. In Canada of course the whole thing would be free and we would probably pay about $100 dollars a month for our medical coverage.
Canada is really beautiful, it's safe, the people are friendly and the streets are clean. There are social services for everyone and if you are determined you can do anything you dream to do. All in all it's a pretty wonderful place to live.
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