Close Reading

Amazing to see tax working

I’m a Canadian nurse and I lived in the US for 10 years during my career. I did it when I was young to gain work experience and travel with friends. It gave me a lot of insight in how it feels to live in both countries. I’ve been a nurse and patient in both counties so I also know how it feels to work, live and be a resident in both. \n\nI cannot articulate enough how it has confirmed to me how fortunate I am to be Canadian. The perks to living in the US were very superficial and frivolous things that matter very little in the broad scheme of things,….which I see as more restaurant chains, cheaper restaurant food, more shopping options, etc. As a young person when I lived there,…those things seemed amazing but matter far less as I get older. \n\nWhen I lived there, I paid a fraction of the income taxes that I paid in Canada but it’s only short term gain for long term pain. The cost of health care, the amounts of gov funded benefits (disability, EI, pension, etc) in the US makes it well worth paying taxes to offset these things as in Canada. I have had cancer 3 times in 5 years and I’ve not paid a cent for treatment, scans, surgery, etc in Canada. My employer held my job for 2 years and I received long term disability of 70% of my yearly wages and my employer paid my full pension and benefits as I was off of work. After 2 years, my cancer returned and was deemed incurable so I will continue to receive this pay and benefits until I’m 65 and can retire as I can no longer work. I have no financial worries as I battle cancer. \n\nTo contrast,…my US employer was a world reknowned hospital that had excellent pay and benefits. Had I been working there when I was diagnosed with cancer, I would only have gotten full pay for 6 weeks until my sick time and vacation time was used up. Then I was eligible for a fraction of my income for 3 months, which would not be enough to live on. I would not have had my pension paid. After that, I’d receive no more pay and my employer would hold my job without pay for 6 months and then I’d be let go. My cancer required nearly 2 years off of work so after 5 months of this minimal pay, I’d have no income, no job and no benefits with a new pre existing condition to ensure that I’d have a snowballs chance in hell of getting future coverage. Meanwhile during that 5 months of some pay, I’d still need to pay huge costs of treatment despite having insurance but that would disappear after I was let go from my job. I’d have to return to work during my treatment just to afford to continue it. I have many US friends that had a similar cancer that worked throughout to cover basic cancer care while I was able to recuperate without working or fearing being unable to pay. There is nothing comparable to this when you are sick. It is everything!\n\nSadly, many of my American friends are very ill informed on how health care works in other countries and don’t see the shortcomings in their own. Ironically though, they are willing to argue it without proper information so I often find that bizarre. While lived there I felt as though I was in a bubble where the only news that I saw was US news. I saw no info or minimal about Canada in my whole time there,…aside from falsehoods about health care to scare people away from seeking change. “Canadians are all dying while waiting”, “they are all coming to the US for care”, “they pay 80% income tax” etc. All propaganda,…some from politicians or those that should know better. It was truthfully mind boggling to me how educated people could know so little about the world. It almost felt as though they heard so much propaganda about how terrible other places were while only having knowledge of the US, that it ensured that things would stay the same without anyone wanting beneficial changes to dysfunctional policies (like health care, cost of meds, lack of gun regulations, etc). It’s very bizarre.