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hello all, well i have been debating this for a while now. i'm planning to go back to school in Canada just cause its more "cost effective" if i did it here in the US it would cost me about $15000-$20000...in US dollars!!! in Canada it would be approx. $5000 for the whole 2 years!!. i have been living/working in the US for about 5 years as a travel RN. i love what i do but now its time to be "more" resposible and plan for the future.
i've recently had discussions w/ some co-workers and we compared the cost of living in Canada to the US. yes i make more money here in the US, if i went back home i would take a serious pay cut (another reason why im going back to school). on the other hand Canada has medicare for me and my future family. here in the US i have to pay $$$ to get covered, i just have to pray that no-one gets seriouslly ill. i saw a documentary on tv: the ferry accident in new york a while back... for those of you who didnt see it, this is the short version. 3 people: one a young man who didnt have insurance or wasn't conrtibuting to one, another young lady, she is (at that time) an illegal alien. the third and elderly lady who had insurance. the 2 people who had no insurance got taken care of even after the ordeal, i.e.: physio etc... the lady who was contributing $$ per month wasn't wholly compensated. i dont recall the reason why, but she wasn't well taken care of by her insurance company post accident. they interviewed the person who was in charge of the hospital billing, she said that the hospital recognizes the fact that they have to bill other pt's "more" to make up the lost revenue. what does this have to do w/ me? well in Canada we may all have access to health care but the system isn't perfect, BUT we all have access to it. in the US (i'm quite convinced) that most insurance companies will try to get out of their responsibilities where ever they can. so in short in Canada i have good access but i might wait for a while to get that CT/MRI for egsample, in the states i can have good access also but it'll cost me; i also hope that my US insurance company wont try to @#$% me. thats one issue.
when i start a family i have medicare to help me w/ my basic healthcare needs. to put my kids through school in Canada will not bankrupt me. the "over-all" violence in major US cities is more compared to Canada... here me now i said "less" in general. the housing prices in California are insane. i spoke w/ another traveller who recently bought a house here... her mortgage payment is approx. $2000 per month. thats NOT including all the other costs of owning a home. housing costs in other states may be less but thats only part of my concerns.
so those are my issues, the cost of healthcare for me and my future family, future educational costs for my kids, and the over all quality/safety factor of life (in general). a little something about me: i'm not one who has to drive a fancy car to be happy, i dont need a gigantic house. those are luxuries, dont get me wrong those things are nice but they are not on the top of my list.. im going back to school so that i may have more choices in the future. if it doesn't work in canada i can always go back to the US.
thank you for making it this far into my long post. so now i ask those of you who have experienced working in the US, taking into consideration all the realities and experiences that you have... would you consider moving back to Canada to raise a family? thx for your time.