Canada Plans Brain Drain of H-1B Visa Holders, With No-Job, No-Worries Work Permits (theregister.com) 293
Canada has launched a bid to attract techies working in the USA on the notorious H-1B visa, by offering them the chance to move north. From a report: The offer, announced on Wednesday as part of the nation's first ever tech talent strategy, means H-1B visa holders can move to Canada without having a job waiting for them. The H-1B visa is contentious in the USA. Its purpose is to attract skilled people whose talents are in short supply stateside, thus adding flexibility to the economy, but the visa is believed to be widely abused -- by employers who use it to find employees willing to work for less than their American peers.
But the visa is very popular in India -- one of the main sources of H-1B applicants. Indeed it's so popular that the Biden Administration last week announced moderate reforms to the program during the state visit by Indian prime minster Narendra Modi. The H-1B also made news early in 2023 amid mass layoffs in the tech sector, because visa holders who don't have jobs have just 90 days to leave the Land of the Free. Canada has clearly spotted an opportunity to nab some talent that needs a bolt-hole -- and can get that talent safe in the knowledge that its southern neighbor has vetted H-1B holders, and they already have some experience of working in North America.
But the visa is very popular in India -- one of the main sources of H-1B applicants. Indeed it's so popular that the Biden Administration last week announced moderate reforms to the program during the state visit by Indian prime minster Narendra Modi. The H-1B also made news early in 2023 amid mass layoffs in the tech sector, because visa holders who don't have jobs have just 90 days to leave the Land of the Free. Canada has clearly spotted an opportunity to nab some talent that needs a bolt-hole -- and can get that talent safe in the knowledge that its southern neighbor has vetted H-1B holders, and they already have some experience of working in North America.
Fantastic idea (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Fantastic idea (Score:5, Insightful)
Let's lower our already uncompetitive (compared to our neighbors south) salaries further
Uncompetitive because all the big tech employers are in the US. If this brings in enough talent the employers start opening more offices here and we might even start building more of our own companies.
while generating ill will with our closest allies and trading partners in this time of economic unrest.
Yeah, I don't really give a damn about hurting the US's delicate feelings [wikipedia.org].
Besides, among things that generate ill will in the US "you're trying to lure away our brown skinned immigrants" isn't one of them.
"believed to be widely abused" (Score:5, Insightful)
The H1-B program is "believed to be widely abused" because it is
Nice weasel words (Score:2)
That's been Canada's Move for Ever (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:That's been Canada's Move for Ever (Score:4, Interesting)
It's pay (Score:2)
Re:That's been Canada's Move for Ever (Score:4, Insightful)
H-1B is problematic due to lock-in (Score:5, Interesting)
Lock in isn't the problem (Score:2)
Take away the lock in and Americans still can't compete because even with all things being equal a) increasing labor supply reduces prices, i.e. wages, and that's always going to be desirable to anyone who buys a lot of labor (supply and demand goes both ways) and b) you don't need a training budget when you use H1-Bs.
That last one is huge. Companies used to have to train workers and then treat them well because the
Wouldn't the large increase in supply (Score:3)
I'll admit tech wages are better than say drywallers, but they're still not keeping pace with inflation. I'm skeptical that just letting Visa holders stay indefinately until they find work is going to fix the problem.
We're also assuming the shortage isn't artificial. Companies used to train people to do t
You can have them (Score:5, Interesting)
This is especially horrible because it makes a pipeline for cheap workers to replace Americans.
And yes, I'm aware that in a properly run society I wouldn't be competing for survival with other workers in India, but I am. I don't get to make the rules. I'm trying, I vote, I vote in primaries, I donate to candidates who will make things better, but my vote is overwhelmed by older voters who frankly don't care.
If we had a national tech union and voting blocks we could actually do something. The rail road guys got their time off. We could have that and more, but we need to bring *votes*. And for that we need organization.
But we're all tech worker geniuses so we really, really hate working together. It makes it easy for the CEOs and C-suites to pick us off one by one.
Re:You can have them (Score:5, Interesting)
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I can't speak for rsilvergun. But I'm very liberal and very pro-immigration and I absolutely abhor the H1-B. For starters, it's exploitive to tie a person's right to stay in the country to one specific job. That makes the employer/employee power imbalance even more lopsided and is very often used to abuse and underpay people or to deny them the same benefit that locals get.
But really... we DO need more STEM workers. What I'd prefer to see, instead of the "bring them, use them, send them away" H1-B visas, i
No pudding until you eat your meat (Score:2)
Basically, if you want the pudding (immigration) you have to have the meat (stable living conditions for Americans). You can't just dump a huge amount of cheap labor into a do
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Fund Universities first restore the funding the right wing slashed in the early 2000s, use the extra money hitting our GDP to make college tuition free. Also do the same for healthcare. Do a housing guarantee too so Americans aren't afraid of homelessness after losing their jobs. Again, with the GDP shooting up that should be easy.
Why not just import a load of H1-B visas or any other skilled labor that will do the same without us having to pay the expenses? You never did actually answer my question either. Afraid of being labeled a racist or something like that? Why should Americans have to work hard jobs when immigrants can come here to do them and support our healthcare, housing, etc. costs?
I'll freely admit that I'm trolling you because I'm quite sure you can't answer my question. Well not so much that you can't, but that you d
Re:You can have them (Score:5, Informative)
it's exploitive to tie a person's right to stay in the country to one specific job. That makes the employer/employee power imbalance even more lopsided and is very often used to abuse and underpay people or to deny them the same benefit that locals get.
As a former H1B holder, I believe that the real problem is with the Green Card process. H1B holders can change jobs (I did), but applying for a Green Card can lock you into a specific employer for some time. When I changed jobs while in the country on an H1B, I had to abandon my Green Card application and start a new one.
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So it's a lose lose for me. I live and breath by selling my labor. An increased supply of labor decreases the value of the only commodity I have to sell and directly hurts me.
Also statistically you're liable to continue that process, because you're likely to be very conservative and prone to voting for pro-corporate policies. Again, maybe not you personally, but statistically. So that doesn't
Great.... more bleeping low quality workers! (Score:5, Interesting)
I live in Ontario, Canada, if I have to read another 200+ resumes that aren't worth the paper they're printed on, and engage with workers who can barely wipe their own butts, then what does it say about our pathetic workforce?
The "tech" sector doesn't need more workers, it needs better quality workers. I don't care that I can find 200 people who apply to a job, when all 200 aren't worth an interview. It's gotten to the point that interviewing is basically a process to filter out trolls, because 99% of the people who we interview aren't quality, aren't able in mind or body, and certainly don't meet the most basic and generic concept of a skilled worker.
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Two reasons, white demographic collapse and the fear Enoch Powell was right. A major western nation giving in to anti-immigrant sentiment while whites still hold so much power is dangerous ... so the only way forward is to double down.
H1b (Score:5, Insightful)
How about normal Americans?
Can US citizens go? (Score:3)
Is this limited specifically to H1B holders? Can I go as a US citizen?
How about competitive salaries. (Score:5, Interesting)
That's the elephant in the room. I absolutely adore Vancouver and have had a couple of times already I've thought that things have gotten so bad here I should consider moving north. But, especially with Vancouver's real estate prices rivaling San Francisco's, the pay cut I'd have to take to move to Canada makes it prohibitive. So I've toughed it out every time so far. But the way things are going now (Specifically and particularly with the massive rash of hate, discrimination, and outright attacks against the LGBT community in the US.) the grass looks greener and greener every day. And if things go wrong in the 2024 election...
I'd love for my escape to be: "Drive east to I-5. Turn left." But with the pay cut I'd take to goto Vancouver, the EU just makes a lot more sense. I have friends who've already relocated to Amsterdam. And, while lower, their pay is at least comparable to what they were making before they left.
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Move to the Okanagan and get a remote job with a company that doesn't care what country you're in! (That's what I'm doing. To be fair, I've lived in Canada my whole life. But I did get to move away from Quebec to live a much more comfortable life here in wine country.)
Awesome, thanks Canada! (Score:2)
H-1B job lock leads to the abuse! (Score:2)
H-1B job lock leads to the abuse!
Opinion (Score:5, Insightful)
We could fix this and make life better for American and H1-B workers, but we won't.
The problem with H1-B visas is they are tied to a specific employer. That means the visa holder is, effectively, an indentured servant to that employer. The most effective way to increase your wages in IT is to change companies. Denying this option to H1-B holders suppresses their wages and, by proxy suppresses the wages of American workers.
If our esteemed representatives had a cephalanalectomy, they'd make a trivial change to the rules to allow guest workers to change jobs and/or live in the US for some double-digit number of days while looking for new work before shipping home. Within a week of that happening you'd see the big consultancy firms handing out raises to stop the ensuing mass exodus.
I also think there should be a clear path to citizenship or permanent residency for guest workers, but that one is a much harder sell. Go Canada; Please force us to fix this.
Solution? (Score:2)
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Look, it's just my opinion...don't worry, I won't be king here.
Re: lol (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re: lol (Score:5, Insightful)
Cost of healthcare per-capita for the USA is $12,915. Canada is $5,905
Now that's not to say it makes up for taxes and the like as a whole but it is an undeniable fact that the average US citizen pays the most for healthcare (and we don't get the outcomes relative to the money we spend).
It's not kittens and rainbows but on the whole they have us beat on that metric.
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Forgot to source that:
https://www.healthsystemtracke... [healthsystemtracker.org]
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I wonder if that data on healthcare spending really tracks the costs?
Does it include all the overhead of insurance company costs, medical billing costs, etc.?
Re: lol (Score:4, Interesting)
I wonder if that data on healthcare spending really tracks the costs?
Does it include all the overhead of insurance company costs, medical billing costs, etc.?
I read somewhere that a third of total US spending on healthcare goes to the private insurance companies, something we don't have in Canada with the single payer system. That is great for insurance company shareholders, but none of that money is actually providing any health care. It is maximizing the profit on sick people.
Re: lol (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: lol (Score:5, Informative)
None of that invalidates my point and anecdotes don't counter the fact that overall Canadians get similar outcomes for less money and overall are approving of their medical system, even if it needs some adjustments and tweaks.
Theres no such thing as a perfect system but by the numbers the US system is pretty bad.
Is there any other argument outside the wait times that can levied here? I dont think there is.
Re: lol (Score:5, Insightful)
20% of Canadians can't find a family doctor at all. Most of them end up using the emergency room for all medical needs, because walk-in clinics are also overburdened. And real emergency room patients often spend days on cots in hallways because there's nowhere else to put them in our full hospitals. But please, keep telling people our system is great. The US system sucks too but there are far better hybrid systems in use elsewhere than either of our countries.
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Sure, no system is perfect but I would submit a few things as facts:
1. Canada's healthcare on teh whole is more equitable and affordable than the US system.
2. Canada's system is on better footing than the US and can way more easily adapt it's system to the rising costs.
3. Canada's populace would never swap out to the US system but would probably move to a system more like the Nordics/Dutch/Germany which are all better.
I am not going to defend every aspect of Canada's healthcare but I will not stand for peop
Re: lol (Score:5, Insightful)
Canada's system is on better footing than the US and can way more easily adapt it's system to the rising costs.
Not really, both systems deal with the increase in costs differently and both adaptions result in pretty much the same outcome overall. In Canada increases in costs means an increase in wait times for treatment which results in more patients dying before getting care. In the US increases in costs means that fewer people can afford treatment which results in more patients dying before getting care.
The really stupid thing in Canada is that people who can afford to pay for healthcare are legally not allowed to do so which increases the cost and strain on the public system. Having a hybrid system like just about every other country with a national health service where people can opt to pay for private care to get faster treatment and/or more convenience would reduce the demands on the public system.
The old argument that this will mean rich people will just pay for care and then not care about supporting the public system is just stupid when we live next to a country that has a privately run system that Canadians with lots of money can easily access. All we are doing is limiting this option to the extremely wealthy who can afford US prices. Politicians support healthcare because voters force them to, not because they are worried about their own healthcare.
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Sure, again, no system os perfect but we are juding on the merits here.
Yes people in Canada do die while waiting for services. Trying to find that number it looks to be 8-10k per year. How many in the US die due to increased costs or lack of insurance? Some number I could find is 20-40k per year. The need of reducing wait times to me is far less daunting than tackling the underpinning of the US for -profit model and the fighting the insurance giants
The really stupid thing in Canada is that people who can afford to pay for healthcare are legally not allowed to do so
This is understandable but you might be right. One thin
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If you allow wealthy people pay big bucks into a private system, then that system very quickly provides higher pay/better working conditions and drains talent from the public system.
Do you mean like the large, very expensive healthcare system being operated right next door to us that wealthy Canadians hop across the border to use and which drains talent and raises salary costs in Canada? If you do not have a plan to shut that down then that's the reality we are dealing with. Worse, it is a completely separate system so the mechanisms that most countries employ - such as positions where doctors have their hours split between public and private practices - can't be used to mitigate some
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Which one? The US syste?
Gonna need you to back that up with something other than personal anecdotes.
Does the US do better on life expectancy? Nope.
Better on affordabilty?
Nope. Better on terms of access? Maybe, for some people but there are plenty of people who simply cannot get care in the US not due to wait times but cost of service.
Does Canada experience medical bankruptcy at the same rate? Nope.
And in general I would say Canadians are probably far less stressed about healthcare then the US is.
How many pe
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Yes (..no system is perfect, but this one's a better option. I know because I've been through Canada's health system)
Which province and what years ?
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I have no issue getting appts with specialists in timely manner. In fact, I have an appt with one today.
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My bother-in-law is a moderately successful businessman living in Los Angeles. He is insured through Kaiser. He had to wait 6 months to get a knee replacement.
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I'm betting that if he put cash down on the table to pay for the surgery, his wait time would've been "we can fit you in tomorrow".
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20% of Canadians can't find a family doctor at all.
About a third (100 million people) in the USA don't have a family doctor either.
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The difference being that, in Canada, you're guaranteed access to a family doctor. In the United States, you aren't. Money talks and bullshit walks. Plenty of Americans choose not to even seek a regular physician due to the costs involved.
Of course if you are on Medicaid you are also "guaranteed" access to a family doctor, but . . . you might not like what you get. Or they and the entire office they operate in may go out of business if everyone else attending the same office/hospital is on Medicaid or M
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20% of Canadians can't find a family doctor at all. Most of them end up using the emergency room for all medical needs, because walk-in clinics are also overburdened. And real emergency room patients often spend days on cots in hallways because there's nowhere else to put them in our full hospitals. But please, keep telling people our system is great. The US system sucks too but there are far better hybrid systems in use elsewhere than either of our countries.
I realize you're saying "Canada", but this describes the US pretty darn well too.
Don't get me wrong - people (like me) who live here in the US and have good health insurance get good care overall. But we still pay the price for the problems overall - overcrowded emergency rooms, overburdened walk-in clinics, waiting half a year to see many types of specialists, etc.
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20% of Canadians can't find a family doctor at all.
Please provide a link to substantiate this stetment
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https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/6m-canadians-don-t-have-a-family-doctor-a-third-of-them-have-been-looking-for-over-a-year-report-1.6059581
https://healthydebate.ca/2023/03/topic/millions-adults-lack-canada-primary-care/
https://angusreid.org/canada-health-care-family-doctors-shortage/
https://www.ontariofamilyphysicians.ca/news-features/news/~287-More-Than-2-2-Million-Ontarians-Left-Without-a-Family-Doctor
https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2023/04/06/more-and-more-toronto-residents-dont-have-a-family-doctor-her
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20% of Canadians can't find a family doctor at all. Most of them end up using the emergency room for all medical needs, because walk-in clinics are also overburdened. And real emergency room patients often spend days on cots in hallways because there's nowhere else to put them in our full hospitals. But please, keep telling people our system is great. The US system sucks too but there are far better hybrid systems in use elsewhere than either of our countries.
Compared to 1/3rd of Americans [usatoday.com].
Certainly part of the issue in Canada is cost, provincial governments tend to under fund healthcare. But the bigger issue, for both Canada and the US, is smaller communities.
Highly educated people tend to prefer living in cities. Partially for culture and all the other things a city can offer, but also for work.
If you're a doctor then your spouse is probably also well-educated, if they're also a doctor or nurse they can work in the same health care facility (though you better
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Americans have poor "outcomes" regardless of what access they have to medical care. Ever thought it wasn't a problem with the medical system?
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The US also has $80K a year in GDP vs $52K in Canada (or about $60K when adjusted for spending power). You're a much richer country.
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Sure, the US loses there too.
18.3% healthcare cost as % of GDP versus 12.2% for Canada.
Canadian Healthcare is terrible (Score:5, Interesting)
H-1B workers are people hoping to have a well paying job. They are usually fairly healthy. If you are willing to pay for healthcare in the USA your quality of care is significantly better than in Canada. I was on a 2 year wait to maybe get on the waiting list for surgery that was needed for me to keep doing the sports and activities I enjoy (yes, waiting lists to get on a waiting list). I went to the USA, saw 3 surgeons and chose one. The one I chose apologized when he said I had to wait till Wednesday for the surgery since it was already Monday afternoon and he was full for Tuesday. My wait was less than 48 hours vs more than 2 years. It cost me $10,000 USD but again, if you can afford it and don't want to lie on a couch for 2 years it's not much of a decision. If you are employed and live within an hour of the US border you are far better off driving to the USA for an emergency than seeing a doctor here.
Another time my daughter was bitten by a dog, we waited 12 hours in the ER in Canada, by which time her hand smelled like moldy cheese. Had I driven to Ogdensburg, NY, it would have cost me less than $150 at the ER and $20 in gas. Considering I lost a day of work, had to pay for hospital parking and had to pay for the drugs the trip to the USA would have been a much better choice.
Voters can't make rational decisions on healthcare. They will always want everything. At the very least a public healthcare system needs a parallel free market system to demonstrate how to allocate resources.
Re:Canadian Healthcare is terrible (Score:5, Insightful)
At the very least a public healthcare system needs a parallel free market system to demonstrate how to allocate resources.
See this is where it falls apart because the principles that underpin free-market systems don't and really cannot apply to healthcare. Consumer knowledge is very out of whack versus the experts (we can't all be doctors and specialists to shop around and evaluate things. At some point we have to trust the professionals) there supply demand curve is basically reversed (how much would you pay to not die? probably everything) and several other factors simply make markets not great in healthcare.
This is why every other developed and industrialized nation has basically abandonded the idea of a free maret system for health services. Some do a very controlled market for insuance but that's about as far as it goes. Any market for healthcare has to be so tightly regualted that it won't really come close to "free".
Markets are good for most thing but not everything, especially things people need to live.
Most people won't pay everything to live (Score:4, Insightful)
*she was athletic but flat chested and had nothing to put into the mammogram machine but she had an obvious lump for years that her doctor told her not to worry about.
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At the very least a public healthcare system needs a parallel free market system to demonstrate how to allocate resources.
It does need a parallel private system to show it how to allocate resources, it needs a parallel private system to reduce the strain on the public system. My dad was a GP in the UK and had private health insurance. When I needed my wisdom teeth out it paid for everything meaning that I had it done within a month. Had I done it on the NHS I would have got exactly the same treatment but likely would have had to wait 6-12 months and the NHS would have had fewer resources to help others.
It is absolutely cra
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The gains from productivity were/are stolen so the rich are at the highest level ever. Nobody works so hard or is so important, has so much responsibility to deserve anything more than the President earns.
The government even with corruption and waste never took as much out of the society as the rich are today. Hell, a good for profit business skims 30% off the top while government waste is not even close to that. (keep in mind nearly all the theft is corrupt contracts to businesses.) Government employees/o
Re: lol (Score:2)
Government waste includes their choice of contractors. And this is something I really don't get -- the Trump admin made a deal with Boeing where if their project had cost overruns, they had to eat those costs. And when that happened, the democrats basically argued that the government should pay more anyways {probably because A) jobs B) TDS) despite the fact that Boeing themselves are in fact wasteful, and they know it, but they're used to being careless on that because they're used to the government picking
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My health insurance is about $2500/year. With no deductible and a $0 out of pocket max.
I just got a hospital bill for $110,000. My share? $0.
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My health insurance is about $2500/year.
How much is your employer paying towards your insurance?
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Don't know, don't care. But I'm sure it's a lot less than they pay me in salary.
Of course your housing is expensive. (Score:2, Funny)
Igloos don't last long, and you have to constantly rebuild them.
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How is that different from the US at all?
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You get paid in loonies instead of Benjamins.
I think you mean "The Jimmy Carter Penny"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_B._Anthony_dollar
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All of our provinces have much higher rates than even your highest state income tax. You have to include both to get any kind of fair comparison. And there's a federal sales tax (on almost everything, including services). And all but Alberta also have provincial sales taxes, most on everything including services. And don't forget to include EI and CPP, there's another 6.5% or so off everything you make up to almost $60,000.
Our property taxes are probably lower on average, because we pay less of the cost of
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Challenge: Say you live in New York without saying you live in New York and have no interest in living anywhere but New York.
Re:Sounds good (Score:5, Insightful)
"Don't forget the part where you have to wait sometimes for years for medical procedures..."
It seems that it is better to have to wait than not to get the procedure at all, or to go bankrupt over it. But yes, it isn't perfect, so you'll smugly cling to an objectively worse system in pretty much every way! Its the american way!
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Worse? In every way?
Then why do so many foreigners come to the US for treatment? More power to them, I'm not criticizing them, but I'd rather at least have the option for treatment.
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It's usually due to wait times not quality of care and that is reflected in the outcomes, Canadians share very similar and oftentimes better medical outcomes.
Of course that number is hard to track, from what i hve read its somewhere in the 150-200k people per year out of a population of 38M (less than 1%) and by nature it would have to be people who can afford the procedure out of pocket in the first place.
It also depends on the procedure, seems like a majority are electives or orthopedics, i dont think we
Re:Sounds good (Score:5, Informative)
Then why do so many foreigners come to the US for treatment?
Far more Americans leave the US for medical procedures in other countries than the other way around. It isn't even close (5-15 times more depending on how it's calculated). Medical Tourism Magazine doesn't even list the US on its list of top 46 medical tourism destinations. And the list isn't just a compilation of poor countries with dirt cheap prices. The top 5 nations are Canada, Singapore, Japan, Spain, and the UK.
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Because money talks and if have money doctors will come to you.
You don't wait years in Canada (Score:3)
They do have some issues with not enough heart doctors compared to the US. You know how they solve them? They send people over to the US and pay for their care. Meanwhile the US has shortages of other specialists so if you're problem isn't heart related you're in for hurt. I waited 6 weeks to see a pulmonologist and never did, I just saw a nurse practitioner. And no, my insura
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It's not better if you die while waiting. I'd rather go bankrupt than die.
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No, Canada is better if you're worried about dying and poor. If you are successful and have money, you will receive better care.
Is it better to provide faster care to people supporting the economy than to people who are not? Pragmatic people would say yes, humanitarian people would say no.
That's for other people to argue and a different topic, but my first statement is true.
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I think going bankrupt is a lot better than being dead. But what do I know? I've never been either.
Re:Sounds good (Score:5, Informative)
You take the good with the bad. Per 100,000 people, 165 Canadians leave their country each year for medical procedures. In the US that number is 235. (the Canada stat is for 2016 while I used 2019 for the US. I couldn't find a good comparison for the same year)
In Canada the reason is mostly wait times and in the US it is usually cost, so Canada is prioritizing the needs of average citizens while the US is prioritizing financially well off citizens. Neither is perfect, but I personally would choose the system which is helping more people over the one which gives better service to those with more money (even though I'm in the latter group myself).
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If you have a link for those states I'd love to see it. I wonder if it breaks down *why* they leave. For example: If a large portion of the medical tourism is people obsessed with cheap Mexican plastic surgery, that would be different from learning that they are traveling for chemotherapy or less expensive drugs.
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If you have a link for those states I'd love to see it. I wonder if it breaks down *why* they leave. For example: If a large portion of the medical tourism is people obsessed with cheap Mexican plastic surgery, that would be different from learning that they are traveling for chemotherapy or less expensive drugs.
It was hard to find many statistics, but one I did find was 40% of medical tourism from the USA is for dental work [health-tourism.com]. Other top reasons listed were plastic surgery, heart bypasses, and fertility treatments. I couldn't find a good breakdown though other than the dental work. But based on that it seems reasonable to say a majority of medical tourism from the USA is not for plastic surgery.
That's what United States is for. (Score:2)
For elective surgery that you don't want to wait 5 years, you just save up $50k and book an appointment with the hospital in Oklahoma (that DOES NOT TAKE insurance payments) and get it done in 2 weeks.
Re:Sounds good (Score:5, Insightful)
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Canadian federal tax is 15%, on top of the provincial/territorial tax between 8% and 16%, making the tax rate 23% to 31%.
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So wait a bit or spend five years salary on the procedure? Oh how will I choose?
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Canada spends about $5,900 / person / year on health care vs $13,900 for the US. It could easily improve wait times by increasing its per capita expenditures by 50%, which would bring it in line with what the US spends as a percent of GDP.
So this looks like a difference in priorities. Canada could improve wait times but they don't want to spend the money. The US has some of the shortest waits for specialists in the world, but only half the number of primary care physicians it needs. Is that a good choice?
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Your entire paragraph is bullshit. The Canadian conservatives are gutting healthcare spending along with education. Smaller hospitals have emergency rooms that are only open part time because of budget cuts. Hope nothing bad happens between 8am and 6pm.
https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.68599... [www.cbc.ca]
Staffing shortages or in other words nobody will take a job for that little pay.
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Wait. Conservatives are actively working to break functioning systems so that they can claim they don't work? Say it isn't so!
I'll just leave this here... [ifunny.co]
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Inflation is largely because of corporate profit-taking, not spending programs. The last couple of years of spending have been to make sure that people had money to buy groceries and pay rent.
This article is about Europe, but we've heard similar things on earnings calls for corporations in NA as well. Oil companies have been booking record profits for the last couple of years, until the cover of 'supply chain issues'.
https://geopoliticaleconomy.co... [geopoliticaleconomy.com]
It's also worth noting that the highest source for inflati
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>>Are 100% of Canadian tech workers gainfully employed?
Yes actually (and not just tech). Plenty of unfilled vacancies in tech, healthcare, mining, agriculture, construction/trades and retail/services. Canada has an aging population with lots of boomers retiring (which accelerated during the pandemic).
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They'll go to Brampton or Surrey. No one moves to Flin Flon.