medicare50years.blogspot.com
A good piece on what is covered – and what is not – by Canadian medicare (example is British Columbia but largely applies, I think, across the country). Essentially, all diagnostic tests, in-hospital care and drugs, doctor and clinic visits etc, but home care is more hit and miss (I received some) and post-hospital drugs are not covered by public medicare (employer or private insurance plans generally cover 80 percent of drug costs).
English version here:
Why, in a sea of pink, are so many cancer patients in the red?
The prescription drug insurance coverage in Québec would probably have avoided this situation. Unless the rrelationship between the price of the treatment and its effect made it overly expensive.
Maybe the rest of Canada should set up such an insurance program.
Medicare avoids people borrowing a fortune or going into bankrupcy when a member of the family is sick.
Prescription drug insurance would help people survive certains diseases.
Jean Rouette, Montréal
Thanks for sharing the Quebec plan (some of the drugs I had were expensive such as Neulasta – about $3k for each chemo round, so I was fortunate to have a good employer health plan that covered 80%). Andrew