So in Canada, you go to the doctor. You give them your health card. Then you leave. That's all.
The doctor uses the standard provincial billing system to get their money.
This seems far more exciting though!
The doctor uses the standard provincial billing system to get their money.
This seems far more exciting though!
Then the ongoing ARG portion where you have to repeatedly sit on hold for hours with the provider's billing department, insurance, and the state insurance commission and/or your congressperson's office, to finally get all the billing sorted out without getting screwed, all while receiving all kinds of scary letters that the people on the phone will tell you to ignore.
[EDIT] Oh and I bet the Canadian version of the game doesn't even have some of the greatest antagonists of the American edition: the people whose entire job is to wander around emergency rooms bugging very sick people about payment and insurance.
Most, if not all the provinces do actually charge people in certain groups (tourists & recent immigrants) for medical care.
Lol yes! One time I woke up with debilitating nerve pain shooting down my writing arm and went to the ER.[1] One of those people kept bugging me until I snapped and said, “I am totally happy to fill that out, just the moment my arm is functioning again.”
[1] Yes in retrospect should have gone to an urgent care, although I suspect they wouldn’t have been helpful either.
If your doctor doesn't bulk bill though the process becomes more difficult.
You have to go onto a government website (fairly modern one), and upload your receipt for reimbursement within a few days. Or if that's too hard, just visit a local medicare office and they'll do it for you. Tough!
Family members have had plenty of denials and crappy paperwork too.
And just like the US, paying cash is often the easiest path forward.