I have a disabled sister and stories like yours have guided my voting my entire life. Disability can happen to anyone and the rules around it are brutal/should be criminal.
I’m going to donate to my local food bank today because you’ve reminded me of how hard people have it.
Also thank you for being a paramedic, I agree that they don’t get the recognition and benefits they deserve. It’s a hard and dangerous job, with tough hours too.
ETA: I have now made that donation to the food bank.
Honest question: I thought Canadian healthcare is subsidized? How did you go through your entire life’s savings from illness? And why don’t you now have medial, dental, or vision coverage? This totally sounds like American healthcare, but I’m surprised to hear it in a Canadian context.
And I’m no way doubting you, just to be clear. I was just wondering if you could educate my ignorant, dumb ass.
It’s Complicated. The short version is, acute care (hospitalization and such) is covered by the government. Chronic care is not covered. Traveling to another location for treatment that isn’t available locally effectively isn’t covered (Ontario has a joke of a reimbursement system that will give you back maybe 10% of what you spent if you’re lucky, not sure about other provinces). Medication is covered only for some segments of the population (now starting to expand to the entire population for certain types of drugs). Dental is now covered for some segments of the population, but not all. Vision care has never been covered, except for the elderly. Prosthetics and assistive devices are mostly not covered (some of the most basic things may be, but not, for instance, powered wheelchairs). And there’s some variation from province to province, because health care is a provincial responsibility.
You can be bankrupted by needing to travel for care or needing expensive meds, in other words, but you won’t have to pay if you’re in a car accident and get taken to the local hospital.
The other replies spell some of it out, but there are some things I should note so you have a broader picture.
Some provinces have pharmacare so after a max deductable (based on income) your medicines are free. If you are disabled you can also apply for a provincial form that makes all medicines free (no max starting deductable)
If you have a provincial disability designation you can get dental, eyeware, drugs, therapy, devices needed covered by a special provincial health insurance. The person you asked may not have been aware of this, or they live in a province that has a higher threshokd of what constitutes disability.
(The reason I say unaware is their statement about $6800 max earnings is not correct)
The only downside is you don’t have a list of what is covered, you have to submit the cost or try for preapproval. Why it is a secret about what is covered is a mystery…I can only assume to stop people reading through and taking advantage of free stuff??
If you have cancer and out of work their is a cancer fund that supplements your income. However they look at previous years earnings to determine eligibility, so if you were healthy then suddenly got sick, rather than slow decline in earnings, you have no funding available because of high amount on last tax return. You would have to wait till the following year when you file a low income tax return to get help.
Actually I just looked into this for my wife. $6800 is the max before you having to call CRA/CCP about it. $19K is the cutoff where they deem you may not need CPP. You call them in between those numbers and they can review if full CPP is still required or if adjustments should be made. Don’t get me wrong the CPP amount plus $19K is still a low income…but you may be able to earn a bit more if capable.
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I am so sorry for your situation.
I have a disabled sister and stories like yours have guided my voting my entire life. Disability can happen to anyone and the rules around it are brutal/should be criminal.
I’m going to donate to my local food bank today because you’ve reminded me of how hard people have it.
Also thank you for being a paramedic, I agree that they don’t get the recognition and benefits they deserve. It’s a hard and dangerous job, with tough hours too.
ETA: I have now made that donation to the food bank.
Yikes, I’m so sorry you’re in this situation. There’s way too much of a gap between government-disabled and employer-disabled.
Honest question: I thought Canadian healthcare is subsidized? How did you go through your entire life’s savings from illness? And why don’t you now have medial, dental, or vision coverage? This totally sounds like American healthcare, but I’m surprised to hear it in a Canadian context.
And I’m no way doubting you, just to be clear. I was just wondering if you could educate my ignorant, dumb ass.
It’s Complicated. The short version is, acute care (hospitalization and such) is covered by the government. Chronic care is not covered. Traveling to another location for treatment that isn’t available locally effectively isn’t covered (Ontario has a joke of a reimbursement system that will give you back maybe 10% of what you spent if you’re lucky, not sure about other provinces). Medication is covered only for some segments of the population (now starting to expand to the entire population for certain types of drugs). Dental is now covered for some segments of the population, but not all. Vision care has never been covered, except for the elderly. Prosthetics and assistive devices are mostly not covered (some of the most basic things may be, but not, for instance, powered wheelchairs). And there’s some variation from province to province, because health care is a provincial responsibility.
You can be bankrupted by needing to travel for care or needing expensive meds, in other words, but you won’t have to pay if you’re in a car accident and get taken to the local hospital.
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Thanks, everyone, for the education. This was very helpful, and I learned a lot.
The other replies spell some of it out, but there are some things I should note so you have a broader picture.
Some provinces have pharmacare so after a max deductable (based on income) your medicines are free. If you are disabled you can also apply for a provincial form that makes all medicines free (no max starting deductable)
If you have a provincial disability designation you can get dental, eyeware, drugs, therapy, devices needed covered by a special provincial health insurance. The person you asked may not have been aware of this, or they live in a province that has a higher threshokd of what constitutes disability. (The reason I say unaware is their statement about $6800 max earnings is not correct) The only downside is you don’t have a list of what is covered, you have to submit the cost or try for preapproval. Why it is a secret about what is covered is a mystery…I can only assume to stop people reading through and taking advantage of free stuff??
If you have cancer and out of work their is a cancer fund that supplements your income. However they look at previous years earnings to determine eligibility, so if you were healthy then suddenly got sick, rather than slow decline in earnings, you have no funding available because of high amount on last tax return. You would have to wait till the following year when you file a low income tax return to get help.
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Actually I just looked into this for my wife. $6800 is the max before you having to call CRA/CCP about it. $19K is the cutoff where they deem you may not need CPP. You call them in between those numbers and they can review if full CPP is still required or if adjustments should be made. Don’t get me wrong the CPP amount plus $19K is still a low income…but you may be able to earn a bit more if capable.
https://www.canada.ca/en/services/benefits/publicpensions/cpp/cpp-disability-benefit.html
expand the sunstantial gainful work section
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