Funny. I don't remember reading anything about health care collapses because of user fees. Do you have any links showing user fees being such a disaster?
Stores aren't dead around here.
People around here, for the most part are fairly health conscious. Most see their docs for regular checkups and would find $20 a year for the checkup.
If it would cost docs more to collect user fees than it'd be worth, how does my eye doc get away with it? Before when hubby was covered for dental, how did our dentist get away with it? Why aren't they broke? If my doc charged a $20 per visit, she'd be raking in around $500 a day and you think it'd cost her more to collect than that $500? lol That's hilarious.
How much do docs transfer files around? I've had a sum total of 3 docs in my life. That's 3 transfers. My doctors must have gone broke from sending my file around.
It was years and years ago that doctors started charging a $5.00 user fee for every visit. There were so many complaints that it ended and our own doctor of the time stated that it was simply not worth the time and effort.
How does your eye doctor get to charge? That's pretty easy. The government no longer pays any part of your visit to your eye doctor until you are age 65+ just like they no longer pay for a visit to Physiotherapists, Chiropractors, Podiatrists, and Naturopaths. Without a "user" fee, these services would be gone completely. It's not actually a user fee, it's just a fee. I believe my last eye exam was $95.00. (or 85).
Stores might not be dead where you are but they are dying here. I'm talking about larger stores like grocery stores the size of Save On More/ Costco etc. Our store has been slow for months with Christmas being the exception. I had a customer yesterday who said he had just come from Costco and it was dead in there too. Now today is Friday and all stores will pick up for the day but the store I work at was "Friday" busy everyday. The addition of 6 self-serve tills has driven customers away in droves. Along with the complaints we get regarding our own we also hear about the ones they don't like at Canadian Tire and at Home Depot. The store was so busy a couple of weeks ago and since we have been slow, not enough cashiers were on duty to cover all the tills. It appears this is done in order to force people to use the self scans where six tills are watched over by one cashier. Out of frustration, people started throwing things at the poor cashier that was overseeing self scan purchases. The self scans and our large open doors are like an invitation to steal all you can and people do. We have a wider opening than Costco does for people entering and leaving the store and no one watches those doors for carts and carts full of groceries leaving the store. Naturally, profits are down. It's a wonderful way of switching the store to a non-union store.
Dentists are not covered by any govenment plan and do not have a user fee either. They just have a fee. If you are lucky enough to be on a dental plan you get a break but if you are not - you pay the full fee. Dentists have never been on any government health plan.
Doctors do charge about $20.00 per visit - to the government and that's why we pay a monthly fee for health care. You really should find out more about how your health care is funded (or not).
I've lived in many towns and cities in this province and had my medical file transferred everytime. The only time I paid was for the one I picked up myself but upon phoning to ask them to transfer my file, I was informed of the fee (less than a year ago) and I had to pay that fee even though I picked the file up myself. I inquired about it a few years ago when a Vernon doctor sent me a bill for transferring my file to this city. I was informed at the time that while the charge (ability to charge) has always been there, most doctors choose not to use it. Time changes all things.
