American EMS - Would you work in Ontario?

[chicagoambo]

My next stop is Texas or Florida,not the cold!

[Urbanmedic461]

it's not just the taxes, it's the exchange rate too. I have not calculated how much more I would need to make in Canada to equal my pay here. I went to websites that illustrated the differences in the tax rates. The really high taxes don't kick in until you get over 60K/year. It's the provincial taxes on top of that. It can be quite a bit. Now, having said that, I do prefer a cold climate to the hot swamp for so much of the year. Maybe if I lived in it all the time I'd change my tune. Now, about housing. I have a 4 bedroom, 2 bath, 2 car garage home in a decent neighborhood. How much would that set me back in Canada? I can build here for about 100 dollars per square foot. How much in Canada?

Last year I made $138,000cdn/$119,000usd (remote north job with big bonus'). I ended up with a take home at the end other year of just under $100,000cdn/$86,000usd. This year I made just over $104,000cdn/$90000usd and took home around $70,000cdn/$60000usd. (I should point out that I'm good with paper work maximizing my returns).

As for housing.

I just purchased a house, today actually. It'll be built by July with a closing date of August 13th.

It is a 2600 sq.ft. 3 bedroom/2 bathroom home with hardwood floors throughout kitchen/dining/living, ceramic tile in entrance/2 bathrooms/laundry room. Upgraded cupboards and counter-tops. Vaulted ceilings. Heated 2 car garage. Walkout basement. 16ft X 20ft deck with built in gas line for BBQ. As well as many other features, all on a 0.8 acre lot in a very distinguished area. Nature trails, sports fields, beaches, schools, colleges, university, shopping district etc... most within a 2 minute walk with the college, university, and shopping district within a 5-10 minute drive. Work is about a 15 minute commute for both my wife and myself.

(Sorry to keep going, I'm a little pumped up about this house )

This house costs $284,000cdn/$245,000usd with all extra costs (closing costs, lawyers etc...)

Hope that helps

[Dustdevil]

Not to mention your dislike of socialized medicine, which I don't neccesarily disagree with, but we don't have any co-pay or out of pocket costs to access health services.

That is also why medics have to spend hours offloading their patients in Ontario. No out-of-pocket expenses equals no inhibition for people to tie up the ER for total BS that has no business there.

Maybe it's just me, but I don't see how paying significantly more for healthcare is a significant benefit in exchange for not paying out-of-pocket.

[FormerEMSLT297]

I also would not leave the U.S.A.

Sorry,, I'm already a Medic My course was 1200+ hours of education in addition to an AS college (56 credits i think),, I'm making close to 100K a year now, I have a good retirement system, I LOVE my job, and am looking at a 10K increase in the near future, and like i said about boston ,, why go back to BLS on the maybe you'll get an ALS job.

No socialized medicine, No to large pools of applicants for a small number of jobs, however,

Now if I hooked up with a playboy playmate, and she lived in ontario, and said i had to move up there for our relationship to continue,, I MIGHT, consider it.

and thats just MIGHT.

[zippyRN]

That is also why medics have to spend hours offloading their patients in Ontario. No out-of-pocket expenses equals no inhibition for people to tie up the ER for total BS that has no business there.

Maybe it's just me, but I don't see how paying significantly more for healthcare is a significant benefit in exchange for not paying out-of-pocket.

the questions is do people pay 'significantly more'

the UK health and social security 'tax' is called 'National Insurance' almost as a historical quirk now, but if you consider that money as an insurance premium then it is pretty good ...

how much are people in the USA paying for health insurance with the following benefits

- 'Free' Primary care consultations

- 'Free' Specialist consultations

- 'Free' Investigations

- 'Free' Emergency Department treatment

- 'Free' Emergency Ambulance treatment and transport,

- 'Free' none emergency Ambulance transport if you meet the mobility / disability / vulnerability criteria

- 'Free' emergency inpatient treatment

- 'Free' elective inpatient treatment

- subsidised dental care

- free optical care for under for under 16 (19 if still in secondary education) and over 60s as well as free opthalomology services provided by medical opthalmologists ( as above) for all ...

low 'co -pay' prescriptions (6.65 gbp / item regardless of prescribed number - 28 days / script is standard for chronic meds) for 16 -60 year olds and free prescriptions for under 16 (19 if still in secondary education) and over 60s

plus the various time frames for investigation and treatment

14 and 62 day rules for cancer invesitgation and treatment

and the 18 week rule coming in at present for treatment http://www.18weeks.nhs.uk/public/default.aspx replacing waiting time time tagets for referaal to consultation and consultation to treatment

plus the various provisions within other social secuirtty benefits for meeting the costs of healthcare ( i.e. free prescriptions for people on low wages / recieving tax credits )

plus the contributory Social Security benefits

Graduated Retirement Benefit;

Incapacity Benefit;

Job-seekers allowance (contributions based);

Maternity Allowance;

Retirement Pension (category A & ;

Widowed mother's allowance;

Widow's pension.

Widow's payment.

NIC rates http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/rates/nic.htm

NI FAQ http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/faqs/nicqc1.htm

wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_insurance

graph showing income taxand NI in relation to earnings http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:UK_Tax_%28percent%29.svg

[ukcanuck]

Sorry but had to write something about this

"the questions is do people pay 'significantly more'"

my NI last month £330 if I was in BC (Canada) £49 for a family of three or more

how much are people in the USA paying for health insurance with the following benefits

- 'Free' Primary care consultations

if you can get a doc, get an appt after managing to get the receptionist on the phone and convincing her that you do need to see a doc and you might get an appt same day at their concenience not yours no cover out of hours really poor service by out of hours and no walk in clinics for the vast majority of the country

- 'Free' Specialist consultations

huge wait time for anything not life threatening and that is after convincing the GP that there is something wrong with you that antibiotics or antidepressants will not make better

- 'Free' Investigations

do you really want to get into the wait for CT/MRI or any appt time for anything such as a holter monitor, stress test or tilt test to name but a couple

- 'Free' Emergency Department treatment

yep in dirty depts that must see you in four hours whether you went there with a sore toe or severe MI. No private options or even hospitals with ERs that specialize in caring for those who can and are willing to pay more for more

- 'Free' Emergency Ambulance treatment and transport,

taxi - need I say more about the abuse put onto that part of the all great NHS they are busy doing matty taxi because it is free and a taxi charges so there are no ambulances for real emergencies don't even go there

- 'Free' none emergency Ambulance transport if you meet the mobility / disability / vulnerability criteria

why should they - most can pay and all are attending out patient clinics or appts for the most part they have means of getting around when they don't go to hosp they can make it to bingo so why not hospital??????

- 'Free' emergency inpatient treatment

as long as you meet the criteria don't need ITU/CCU beds as they are all full god help you if you are having twins as your SCBU will be full and you will be either transferred out or one of your babies will be - have fun

- 'Free' elective inpatient treatment

yep again - you can wait in line with people who have not paid tax into the system - mmmmm sounds good to me

- subsidised dental care

if you can get one at all some people will travel hours to find one and even then it is £15.50 per visit

- free optical care for under for under 16 (19 if still in secondary education) and over 60s as well as free opthalomology services provided by medical opthalmologists ( as above) for all ...

plus the various time frames for investigation and treatment

yeah really long and even longer

14 and 62 day rules for cancer invesitgation and treatment

but no active radio treatment for cancer on the weekends or even into the evening so even if you are Dx with the big C the treatment is slow and not enough of course the incidental find rate in Canada and US is sooooo much higher than in the UK

and the 18 week rule coming in at present for treatment http://www.18weeks.nhs.uk/public/default.aspx replacing waiting time time tagets for referaal to consultation and consultation to treatment

yeah have to wait and see how the stats people twiddle with those stats to make it look good

plus the various provisions within other social secuirtty benefits for meeting the costs of healthcare ( i.e. free prescriptions for people on low wages / recieving tax credits )

yep people who pay more get the same as people who don't pay or pay a lot less - sorry call me a pure capitalist but this is not right

plus the contributory Social Security benefits

Graduated Retirement Benefit; retire at 68 - fantastic

Incapacity Benefit;

Job-seekers allowance (contributions based);

Maternity Allowance; only good thing listed have to give you this one

Retirement Pension (category A & ;

Widowed mother's allowance;

Widow's pension.

Widow's payment.

you forgot to mention inheritance tax and as most house prices are so high most average people have to pay 40% tax after they die on money that they have already paid tax on :?

apart from that, the fact that the NHS is falling down around our ears, not enough beds, not enough staff, not enough resources, crap workinh conditiond, poor conditions for patients and evrything done by the lowest bidder it is fantastic

staff are great but the NHS runs on GAG - goodwill, ambition or guilt - on the part of the staff

just my opinion having worked bothy sides of the pond

be safe and watch out for the bean counters they might get the electricity meter and turn it off :wink: