It's not perfect

Canada goes around bragging about how fantastic its health care system is, but there is the odd flaw. One of the elements of our lauded system is the steady erosion of things that are covered by the various health insurance providers and even amongst the plans a provider offers.

Case in point is dental. Darlene's plan, provided by Blue Cross, doesn't cover very much. You're basically allowed the bare minimum amount of planing, scaling and polishing per year. If you have perfect, ultra-clean teeth, it's enough. But I've never found it to be enough. In fact, my hygienist wants me to come in twice a year. Unfortunately, the amount of work I needed was only about 75% covered as it is - if I went back for round two in 6 months, I'd be paying it all out of pocket. And this stuff isn't cheap. I talked to Darlene about it and the minuscule coverage stems from the fact that her plan is the absolute lowest tier you can buy. It's a perk of working in the health care industry. Yes.... I'm being very sarcastic. Interestingly, if I were subscribing to my own work's plan, more work would be covered. Much more. But I choose to use my coverage dollars toward a health spending account. So it all balances out.

Sometimes, patients get sideswiped by increases in fees charged by their health providers that aren't actually covered by the insurance, which comes out of the patient's pocket, but they often don't find out until afterward. Health costs keep going up, but the amount you're covered for doesn't match it. Not even close. Even thought the provider knows the coverage has not kept pace with the fees, they often don't bother to tell you either. "Here, put this fluoride in your mouth........ psst... it's not covered by the way...."

I feel for people with no money, no job, or poor coverage from their employers (it does exist).