MrMatt, I think you may be focusing a bit too much on small details but missing the bigger issue of total risk. Copays in Canada for what, a few hundred dollars maximum?
Please. I wish I had that.
My employer-sponsored US health plan is believed to be quite generous overall. If I'm not careful tippy toeing around all the rules ... like going to one of the "in-network" providers ... my health insurance will only cover 60% of my expenses. I believe I can hit an absolute maximum out of pocket amount of around $10k -- though nobody at work is crystal clear on whether that is in fact is an absolute maximum under all circumstances. Perhaps the out of pocket maximum is even higher.
I do know, from a coworker who had a medical complication, that all it takes is for your health emergency to span two calendar years, and in a short period of time she had a $20,000 bill for out of pocket expenses ... not covered by insurance ... for her medical expenses, despite being covered under our company health plan. 20 GRAND.
Repeat: she had to pay 20 K of her own money, even though she was covered under the health plan the entire time. And this is a good plan.
Those of us in the US with health plans have to still worry about getting hospitalized for serious conditions. It can very quickly ruin your finances. One of the reasons I demand higher income in the US, and would accept lower income in Canada, is to adjust for this medical cost risk.
On top of that, in my interactions with the health & dental systems, I'm seeing that health providers here in the US are way more zealous... for profit reasons obviously... to try to do as much medical intervention as possible. I don't think this is good medicine at all. It's all part of their game for billing you for as much as possible. The motivations are all wrong, and I don't see any way this is superior to Canada other than having availability of better equipment & tests.
But even the better equipment & diagnostics are only a benefit if medicine is practiced honestly and in the best interest of the patient, which I feel is rare in America. I think because of the profit motivations, as well as the liability fears of getting sued by a patient for "missing something", the American doctors try to do anything and everything... even if unnecessary. Which is bad medicine, IMO.
But to the doctors, it's a no-brainer: patient comes in with something border line. Recommend every single medical test possible. Many patients like that and feel that they are getting great treatment. Recommend some surgery. Lots of income, and the patient won't sue you for failing to take action. Personally, I hate this. I don't like unnecessary medical work, and unnecessary work such as dental procedures, surgery and even unnecessary TESTS can harm you in the long term.
I have a couple friends who practice medicine and dentistry in the US. In private, they both speak about how profit-motivated everything is and express their discontent at how their colleagues operate. I have never heard any of my Canadian domiciled medical friends say this.
Quick example: I go to the American doc for a simple skin rash. I get sent for a suite of tests, including for diabetes (I have no family history, nor do I have risk factors). But you see how the doctors think in the US: the symptoms for diabetes have at least a single overlap with skin rash. So, go test for it. Maybe the doc will get lucky and find you have border-line diabetes, in which case they can get you on some expensive drugs and more follow-up treatments and start a world of revenue generation. All of it possibly unnecessary.