From: clamen@CS.CMU.EDU (Stewart Clamen)
Subject: Canadians receiving health care in the USA (was: National Health Care)
Originator: clamen@BYRON.SP.CS.CMU.EDU
Reply-To: clamen+@CS.CMU.EDU
Organization: School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University
	<1992Aug22.191729.1448@brownfield.glv.com>
	<1992Aug23.012108.25842@news.columbia.edu>
Date: Sun, 23 Aug 1992 06:42:55 GMT

In article <1992Aug23.012108.25842@news.columbia.edu> gld@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Gary L Dare) writes:

   >Path: news.columbia.edu!rpi!gatech!concert!glv!brownfield!jbrow

   From the enormous hops taken getting to my news site, it's hard to
   tell where you're located but a good guess would place you in the
   Carolinas or Florida ... areas where LOTS of retired Canadians live 
   to escape the brutal winters or spend full-time (two famous Canadian
   retiree colonies are found in Florida ... primarily Francophone
   Quebecois ... and Arizona ... primarily Western Canadians.  Since
   I can't think of any other reason for a fellow Canadian to come all
   the way down for regular care, that would go a long way to explain
   your claims in a comprehendable fashion (to a real Canadian -- you
   Americans can continue to let your imaginations run riot (-;).

   These Canadian retirees are able to use their provincial health plan
   insurance where they're in large numbers ... La Presse in mid-January
   (Montreal's largest French daily) had an article about how many Miami
   hospitals in Little Montreal and the surrounding areas openly display
   the symbol of La Regie de L'Assurance-Sante', that they accept their
   payment on the Quebec provincial fee schedule.  One old man commented
   that their Regie insurance payments went to pay for poor Americans
   who were piled up in the Emergency ward out back ("a l'arriere") for
   stuff he would have normally caught well in advance.  (February 1990
   issue of National Geographic has an article on these retirees, called
   "Quebec South" ... so many retirees are down there that the Turks and
   Cacaos Islands in the Caribbean have petitioned twice to join Canada
   and get a slice of the retirement pie as a "domestic" location.)

	[ paragraphs describing the situation in Arizona omitted]

   So if these are Canadian retirees chilling out for the winter down
   in warmer climates, able to use their heatlh insurance, why not?
   That saves them more time for summer fun.  And, these retirees are
   not necessarily flush, either, although a significant number in this
   trend also enjoy American Social Security on top of Canada Pension
   Plan (or Quebec Pension) and private RRSP's (IRA's in Americanese);
   many people in Little Montreal were WW II draft dodgers who worked
   in positions vacated by Americans who enlisted, and stayed around
   for the 50's (these were back in the old days of free movement);
   then 20/30/40 years later, they retire from their job in Canada
   and find that old Social Security card and call the US Consulate
   to check on their account balance ... ooh la la!!! (-;

   If I could golf in Arizona or spend a day at the beach in Florida,
   come home or go to the bar for a tall cool one just as the hockey
   game on satellite television starts, and know that I've got my own
   health insurance entitlement ... I'd be feeling pretty good, too!


Gary fails to take into account the atrociously high US health care
prices (when compared to those in Canada).  Here's a relatively old
but pertinent news article my parents sent me. (I am a Quebecer going
to school in the US, and am thus still covered by the Quebec health
insurance system.)

---
Stewart M. Clamen			Internet:    clamen@cs.cmu.edu
School of Computer Science		UUCP: 	     uunet!"clamen@cs.cmu.edu"
Carnegie Mellon University		Phone: 	     +1 412 268 2145
5000 Forbes Avenue			Fax:	     +1 412 268 5739
Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3891, USA


---

From: The (Montreal) Gazette, Friday, April 3, 1992
      [Reprinted with permission.]


MEDICARE COVERAGE IS SLASHED FOR QUEBECERS TRAVELLING ABROAD
Province expects to save about $5 million a year

TU THANH HA
Gazette Quebec Bureau

QUEBEC - Medicare coverage for Quebecers travelling abroad will be
drastically cut.  Health Minister Marc-Yvan Cote' said yesterday.

Starting May 1, medicare will pay $480 per day for hospital costs
abraod, plus $50 for medical expenses.

While the new government measures applies to all travelling Quebecers,
it is aimed mainly at those wintering in Florida.

Quebec medicare now pays the first $750 of the bill, plus 50 per cent
of the rest.

Spending a night in a Quebec hospital costs about $400.  Some Florida
institutions charge as much as $2000.

If people "have the means to spend five, six months in Florida," they
can afford the hospital costs, Cote' said.

"It's a matter of equity and justice."

People now abroad won't be affected by the new measure until they
return to Quebec, Cote' said.

"As long as they aren't back, they are covered by the old regime," he
pointed out.

The Quebec health insurance board paid $21 million last year for the
medical costs of Quebecers travelling outside Canada.

Of that amount, 60 per cent -- $12.5 million -- went to the
approximately 600,000 Quebecers vacationing in Florida.

The government plan would cut costs by $5 million a year, $2.8
million for Florida vacationers.

The new measure means Quebecers going abbroad will face higher
private-insurance premiums.

If Blue Cross has to pick up the slack for the government, it has no
choice but to increase premiums by an average of 25 per cent,
vice-president Pierre Julien said.

Because of the government's decision, Blue Cross will charge elderly
Quebecers $3.50 or $3.75 a day instead of the current $3 daily premium
rate.

Blue Cross is also studying a formula in which it would pay people who
fall ill to fly back to Quebec rather than be treated in Florida.

The new rules are part of Cote's campaign to reduce health and
social-service costs.

Last year, Quebecers paid $12 billion for health costs -- one-third of
the province's budget.

Private insurance companies have already said they can't cover
everyone if the government reduces its medicate policy.

About 2 per cent of Quebecers are too ill to be privately insured --
"Unless we practically charge them the entire costs of medical
services,"  said Yves Millette, an executive for the Canadian Life and
Health Insurance Association.


--
Stewart M. Clamen			Internet:    clamen@cs.cmu.edu
School of Computer Science		UUCP: 	     uunet!"clamen@cs.cmu.edu"
Carnegie Mellon University		Phone: 	     +1 412 268 2145
5000 Forbes Avenue			Fax:	     +1 412 268 5739
Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3891, USA
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