We Canadians pride ourselves on our free healthcare system. However, I’m the first to admit that the Canadian healthcare system is not perfect and that there are challenges which will get worse as more and more of us age and try to access the resources and services simultaneously. However, it’s still better than the experience of our neighbours to the south – we are far less likely to go bankrupt for want of a bandaid…
Today, I’m positing that even Canadians need some emergency money set aside for medical expenses. Sometimes, we delude ourselves into thinking that we don’t need to pay for expenses related to healthcare. Hogwash! There are some expenses which arise from healthcare and they have to be funded just like everything else. And since these kinds of expenses are unanticipated, a healthy emergency fund should be in place so that the money is already there when you need it. I’m not talking about regular prescription co-pays, which should be accommodated in your monthly budget. I’m not talking about any health insurance premiums that you may have to pay, since these should also already be a line item in your budget. You know in advance that you have to pay these expenses so you can plan for them ahead of time.
Nope! Today, I’m talking about the sneaky and indirect health-related costs that can spring up at any time and without warning yet must still be paid.
Back in 2014, I took a trip to Vegas and had a very good time until I arrived at the McCarran airport to fly home. My right Achilles tendon started to cause me significant pain with every step. I tried to minimize my walking through the airport, but the pain was still there when I landed and had to get off the plane. I had a few days off before returning to work so I kept my leg elevated and applied an ice-pack. I’m not a doctor – I don’t even dress up as one at Halloween! Needless to say, my home remedies did not work and I eventually had to visit my primary care doctor. Her time, attention and expertise were all free – thank you Canadian healthcare system!
My doctor ran some tests and told me that I’d likely sprained my tendon. She advised me to avoid any weight-bearing on my foot for a few days then I could start walking on it a little bit after 5-7 days. After that initial period, I could gently increase the amount of walking that I did each day. No weight-bearing meant using crutches to get around – not fun, but not impossible either.
Now, I normally commute to work by bus. I’m not a fan of rush hour traffic and the bus is convenient. Riding the bus allows me to have a little catnap after work before I arrive home. It’s also a lot cheaper than monthly parking. (The money I save on parking funds my travel, i.e. travel such as the trip to Vegas where I somehow hurt myself!) The only problem with commuting while on crutches was that my closest bus stop is roughly a 5-minute healthy-tendon-walk from my office. As I wasn’t terribly fast on my crutches, I knew that my injured-tendon-walking time would be a lot longer than 5 minutes so I chose to drive to work and to park in my office building, a whopping $13/day at the time.
My injury did not heal nearly as fast as my doctor had predicted. When day 7 rolled around, I still couldn’t walk the distance between my parked vehicle to the bus! I still needed my crutches so I made the decision to pay for parking until such time as I could walk comfortably.
It took me 5-6 weeks before I was confident that my tendon was strong enough to let me get through the day without being hobbled by mid-afternoon. This meant that I had to shell out several hundred dollars for parking fees! While parking is not technically a health expense, it is an example of how health issues can result in unexpected expenses. If I hadn’t had an emergency fund, I would have been funding those parking expenses with my credit card.
Another example of unexpected expenses related to healthcare is visiting people in the hospital. When my mom has gone in for surgery and has been required to stay in the hospital for a few days, I’ve paid close to $100 in parking fees for 3-4 days’ worth of visits. I’m convinced that the streets surrounding the hospitals in my city are worn down faster than every other city street because visitors spend many hours driving around in search of a free parking spot. Each of my hospital visits started with the mandatory loop around the hospital in search of an elusive free spot. More often than not, my search was futile and I found myself standing at various parking meters trying to figure out how much time to buy. Thankfully, I live in the same municipality as my mother so I didn’t have the added financial burden of travelling out of town, possibly staying in a hotel, and missing a few days of work in order to be with her.
What about injuries that don’t require a trip to the doctor or hospital? In 2016, I hurt my thumb so badly that I couldn’t concentrate. (Again, I have no idea what I did to myself!) It was impossible to pick up items and any movement caused pain in that digit. I was afraid to drive my 5-speed because I wasn’t confident that I would be able to work the stick-shift in case I need to complete an emergency maneuver. I went to a medical supply store and bought myself a hand brace. Relief was immediate and I happily handed over my money.
Thankfully, I had the money in my emergency account to fund all these unexpected purchases. I wasn’t forced to borrow money in order to get to my office, to visit my mother, to find a non-prescribed solution to my injury. I’d had the foresight to put money aside for an emergency. When those emergencies showed up, I was ready financially and I was easily able to weather the added strain on my finances without going into debt. My focus was properly on healing the injury without the distraction of wondering how I would pay off credit card debt.
Medical emergencies will happen. They will never be at a convenient time, nor will they give you much, if any, warning. However, I can promise you that they will result in some sort of impact to your finances. If you’re lucky, the financial impact will be minimal. If you’re not so lucky, then you’ll need to have a larger cash cushion to get you through the situation. (And if you don’t already have short-term or long-term disability insurance, then get a policy in place sooner rather than later!) I strongly urge you to start funding your medical emergencies now by putting money aside in your emergency account.
Trust me when I say that you won’t regret having the money in the bank when you need it!