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Calgary clinic asks for nearly $5K a year for a 2-parent membership — and it's not the only one (www.cbc.ca)
submitted 1 year ago by MarkG_108@lemmy.ca to c/canada@lemmy.ca
17 comments fedilink hide all child comments

A Calgary clinic informed its clients it would be introducing a "membership-based medical service," running $4,800 a year for a two-parent family membership.

Such arrangements have been growing increasingly common in recent years, experts say.

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[-] jtmetcalfe 45 points 1 year ago

Please Canada, don’t become the US, trust us you don’t want it

[-] Crystal_Shards64@lemmy.world 31 points 1 year ago

The Alberta government will do whatever they can to strip public Healthcare. They benefit from introducing private care. They're going to push for it regardless of how it hurts regular people.

[-] AnonymousLlama@kbin.social 28 points 1 year ago

The constant attack on healthcare across western countries is starting to become pretty horrifying. Not liking where this is all going

[-] Arsisaria@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

What a nightmare. Double dipping, but I do actually kinda not feel that bad for anyone who falls for this, except for how it hurts the rest of the system.

[-] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 14 points 1 year ago

People do not readily take advantage of this kind of service.

When there's truly no choice, though, people will pay.

But this is criminally a dick move.

[-] Arsisaria@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I'm not sure there's much to take advantage of. It's mostly rich dicks paying to avoid lines which aren't even that bad. There is not a "truly no choice" context in Calgary, since care is given based on need. Sure, go to the ER with a cut hand and you'll wait 24 hours, but a community clinic will be able to have you in within an hour most of the time. I remember as a teen I was very sick and was waiting at the ER of the children's and when my condition got worse, they immediately started taking care of me. It's a myth that anybody is any danger as a result of waiting for care.

[-] argv_minus_one@beehaw.org 6 points 1 year ago

And not a peep of complaint from the general public at this dystopian outrage.

[-] Seigest@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 year ago

Can confirm it's happening in Toronto not 5k but they don't even seem to guarantee appointment times or that your getting an actual doctor. And given how hard it is to get a family doctor here I'm almost desperate enough to pay it.

Evidence: https://www.careand.ca/family-practice

[-] Hacksaw@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 year ago

Let's call out these fees for what they are: BRIBES.

That's the worst part about these fees: They still charge the public healthcare system. In effect we're all paying for a small number of people to get priority service because they slid $5000 to the doctor under the table.

I know that not everyone who pays the fee is complicit. Some people are easily fooled by the "membership" wording, and desperate for medical care.

That being said, the clinics that ask for these bribes know exactly what they're doing, they're asking their customer to slide them money, outside the system, for preferential treatment. Doctors asking for bribes is disgusting behavior and we need to be clear that we all know what they're doing, and we're not fooled by "memberships" to access care we already paid for.

this post was submitted on 25 Jul 2023
88 points (97.8% liked)

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