Canadians are famous for the ” free” health care model. We pay $0 for every doctors appoitment, emergency room visits and everything medical ( even some prescriptions). This is where being an alternative healthcare provider and wanting to charge patients is a difficult ball to roll up the hill. When people are offered “free” healthcare , not only dose it lose its value but it is often misused( that’s why we have a shattered system, our wait times are twice as long). I have many MANY patients whom often don’t understand why I charge as much as I do ( $250 for a INITAL hour appoitment.. I have sliding scale actually) when they can do see there MD for free. Sorry to say its actually not ” free”.

The average cost of a Medical Doctors appoitment in Canada ( that’s a 15 min time slot) is $ 293. You walk in…check in with the reception…walk into the cold all white room…wait longer ….talk for about 7 min…the doctor checks you over….makes some notes on the computer then you walk out… no money is exchanged… or so you think. You have paid for this appoitment and MANY others ( because it all goes into the giant free pot then everyone can access it) by your taxes. That’s why Canadians are the 5th highest taxed in the world totaling a taxed amount of 33.45% ( the USA is 11.2%)

VENTING*
If we changed our model from ” free” to paid ( like our friendly neighbor’s to the south ) we would have a better healthcare system where people would have options and take charge of there own health. You’d want to look at your options ( such as seeing a Homeopath or even a ND) and you wouldn’t blink at paying for there service, which in turn you would value it more. Yes, there is a downside to this too ( please don’t email me hate mail this is just my opinion) but as Canadians we would be better off. PLUS our taxes would go down which we would all be able to live happier and have a few extra bucks to actually go on a vacation LOL

Here some fun facts for all of you to mull over:

Most Canadians spend the average of $480 a month on a massage, which is a yearly average of $ 5760.

Most Canadians spend on average $4.12 a day on Tim Hortons , which is a yearly average of $ 988.80.