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We are both U.S. citizen. My husband has a job offer in Toronto Canada. We have a 2 years old daughter and will have another baby soon. Is US healthcare better than Canada healthcare or the opposite? We have united healthcare PPO here but if we move to Canada, the new company will provide us 3 months healthcare and then we will get the Canadian healthcare. Which hospital is the best to deliver a baby in Toronto? Can anyone recommend us a good family doctor, Obstetrician/Gynecologist and pediatrician?
My husband will work at Canada Trust Tower between Bay St. and King St. W. We want to find a 2 or 3 bedroom apartment with 1 parking space downtown. Can anyone recommend us some property apartment buildings downtown with reasonable rental price?
Can anyone also recommend us a safe and nice area to rent which have a tall apartments building near train station? I have been to www.torontorentals.com/ but I don't what cities I should select. Please tell me which cities very close to downtown and my husband can walk to a train station within 5 minutes distance.
As someone who has gone the other direction (Canada - US) I will try to answer some of your questions.
Rental - I do not have any direct experience with rentals in Toronto. I always lived at least 1 hour out of the downtown core in the suburbs and smaller towns. But that is just me. However, I think the definition of reasonable is relative. If you could post a target rent you are looking to pay, I am sure others on this board could point you in the right direction. But from my limited knowledge, you may be looking at the $2000 a month range for a 2 or 3 bedroom downtown.
You can either look for buildings close to the subway line within the Toronto area, or, you can look outside of Toronto for a building within close proximity to the GO Train which run from the suburbs to downtown. Working right down town actually makes it easier to commute in from the suburbs.
We have moved from Canadian Healthcare and are currently with United Healthcare PPO, so the direct opposite from you.
Some key differences in Canada.
No co-pay. You do not pay anything for doctors visits, hospital stays, emergency room visits or clinics. That is the key difference. The money to fund all of this will come out of the higher income and other taxes you will pay. Keep in mind that there are a lot of non-covered services that you will be billed for if you use them. These can include getting doctor's notes, physicals for non-medical reasons such as summer camp, semi-private or private rooms in the hospital, some items in the hospital such as crutches, slings, certain types of casts etc, TV access (not sure), and a bunch of other things that end up in fine print. Depending on the area, you may be charged for an ambulance ride to the hospital.
Your husband's employer should offer a health benefit plan the will pay for a lot of the gaps left above and most importantly, pay for prescriptions and dental. Some plans pay 100%, some only pay a portion. You may still end up with a bill, just smaller than the US.
I and my wife have both had medical issues since moving down here that have made us become intimate with the US medical system. So far we have not had any problems, and we have been overwhelmed by how fast things move down here and how quickly you are taken care of. Personally I am currently running through a battery of scans and tests for cancer. I had a sore back for a year that was traced back to a fractured vertebrae, and an associated tumor like growth on the spine. They are now trying to find out where the tumor came from. In the last 3 weeks I have seen 2 new specialists, and gone through 2 cat scans, one of which found the fracture by accident, an MRI, a back procedure to cement the fractured vertebrae, and today, colonoscopy to analyse a growth in my colon. All this from a sore back that was being treated by a chiropractor.
In Canada, I was one of the millions who did not have a family doctor, which is the magic key to get into the medical system there. In Texas the commercials talk about the millions without health insurance. In Ontario, the commercials talk about the millions without a family doctor.
I have been trying to determine how much of my condition would have been diagnosed by now if I were still in Canada. The MRI's were requested by the spine specialist, who I got into see by using United Healthcare's self referral provision. In Canada, I would have first had to find a general doctor to look at my back, and then get referred to a specialist. I am not sure how many visits to a clinic it would take before they would write the referral. A family doctor would be faster, but I did not have one. Either way, it would have been months before I was a specialist.
Referrals in Canada usually are measured in weeks or months or waiting time. I had a massive kidney stone and waited 6 weeks to see the specialist. With my back down here, I was into the spine specialist the next day after seeing my GP. My wife was into a specialist within one day on the recommendation of her friend when she developed Bells Palsy. Both of us had an MRI done the next day. MRI's can be scheduled months out in Canada depending on the critical need. I think there may be more MRI machines in Austin, Texas than there are in Ontario.
The other side of the story is that a good family doctor can get the system expedited when required. My mother in law was diagnosed with breast cancer years back. Her progression from family doctor to treatment was done within weeks because her doctor kept pushing on her behalf.
Your first priority is to find a family doctor who is accepting new patients. That way you have an inside track. They are few and hard to find. See if your employer can help out. Also understand exactly what your health insurance covers. Most of them are pretty generous, but some can have a lot of fine print.
You will run into other differences between the countries that you will find perplexing. Feel free to ask any questions you have.
I apologize for the long post. Good luck on your move.
Which is better really depends on how rich you are. For example, the Premier of Newfoundland recently went to the US for a heart surgery.
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=2510700 (broken link)
But if you are an average person with a mediore HMO, Canada provides better service with a lower cost.
Hospitals. Pretty much any of the hospitals in the downtown core are great. St. Michael's has an amazing neo-natal intensive care unit.
Downtown is expensive. If you are looking to stay close to the city but have a more family like feel I would suggest staying between avenue road and mt pleasant (east to west) and lawrence to around the rosedale station. The subway runs in two directions along bloor street and along yonge street. If So if you stay close to those streets you'll be a short train ride in. There is also the Kingsway/Bloor West village which extends out in the west and runs along the Bloor Line. If you have lots of money then Yorkville would be ideal. Really close to work and the higher end shopping. I personally prefer the uptown Toronto area around Yonge/Eglinton to Rosedale and Bayview/Eglinton or Bloor West Village. Safe areas great for families.
Thank you so much for your information. We want to find a 2 bedroom apartment for $1800 or 3 bedroom for $2200. If someone can provide us some property management names downtown that will be great.
It sounds like if we can find a good family doctor in Toronto, we should be fine. Is there any private health insurance which I can buy to cover any uncover bills from Canada healthcare?
We really like UHC PPO that it covers everything under its network. Too bad we can't keep it in Canada.
Thanks again for your answers.
Quote:
As someone who has gone the other direction (Canada - US) I will try to answer some of your questions. .................................................. ............................
Thanks for your input. We are an average people so we are better off having Canada healthcare.
Quote:
Originally Posted by kkgg7
Which is better really depends on how rich you are. For example, the Premier of Newfoundland recently went to the US for a heart surgery.
N.L. Premier Williams set to have heart surgery in U.S. (http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=2510700 - broken link)
But if you are an average person with a mediore HMO, Canada provides better service with a lower cost.
Thank you so much for your answers. Yes, we are looking to stay close to the city but we also want to feel more like family housing. Which cities from the list below is very close to downtown and which one is uptown Toronto?
Toronto Cities:
Ajax
Aurora
Brampton
Burlington
Cambridge
Etobicoke North
Etobicoke South
Guelph
Hamilton
Kitchener
London
Markham
Milton
Mississauga North
Mississauga Central
Mississauga South
Newmarket
Niagara Falls
North York West
North York Central
North York East
Oakville
Orangeville
Oshawa
Ottawa-Central
Ottawa-East
Ottawa-South
Ottawa-West
Pickering
Richmondhill
Sarnia
Scarborough North
Scarborough South
St. Catharines
Stouffville
Thornhill
Toronto West
Toronto Central
Toronto East
Waterloo
Welland
Whitby
Windsor
Quote:
Originally Posted by thepannarales
Hello,
Hospitals. Pretty much any of the hospitals in the downtown core are great. St. Michael's has an amazing neo-natal intensive care unit.
Downtown is expensive. If you are looking to stay close to the city but have a more family like feel I would suggest staying between avenue road and mt pleasant (east to west) and lawrence to around the rosedale station. The subway runs in two directions along bloor street and along yonge street. If So if you stay close to those streets you'll be a short train ride in. There is also the Kingsway/Bloor West village which extends out in the west and runs along the Bloor Line. If you have lots of money then Yorkville would be ideal. Really close to work and the higher end shopping. I personally prefer the uptown Toronto area around Yonge/Eglinton to Rosedale and Bayview/Eglinton or Bloor West Village. Safe areas great for families.
private message me and I'll help you out! I'd stay in south North York or north Toronto or south Etobicoke. go to mls.ca enter north york as your search stay south of 401 and between avenue road and leslie and it'll give you a start until I can get back to you with further info
Thank you so much for your answers. Yes, we are looking to stay close to the city but we also want to feel more like family housing. Which cities from the list below is very close to downtown and which one is uptown Toronto?
Toronto Cities:
Ajax ----eastern outlying suburb
Aurora ---- northern outlying suburb
Brampton --- western outlying suburb
Burlington
Cambridge
Etobicoke North --- west area of Toronto
Etobicoke South --- west area of Toronto
Guelph
Hamilton
Kitchener
London
Markham --- northern outlying suburb
Milton --- northwest outlying suburb
Mississauga North --- western inner suburb
Mississauga Central --- inner western suburb
Mississauga South ---western inner suburb
Newmarket --- northern outlying suburb
Niagara Falls
North York West --- north area of Toronto
North York Central --- north area of Toronto
North York East --- north area of Toronto
Scarborough North --- eastern area of Toronto
Scarborough South --- eastern area of Toronto
St. Catharines
Stouffville --- northern outlying suburb
Thornhill --- northern inner suburb
Toronto West --- inner area of Toronto
Toronto Central --- inner area of Toronto
Toronto East --- inner area of Toronto
Waterloo
Welland
Whitby --- eastern outlying suburb
Windsor
Locations listed in RED would not be considered part of Toronto or its suburbs. Some of the locations are hundreds of kilometers away from Toronto.
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