Hello all, Merry Christmas!

Well, my wife and I are coming over to Alberta for a week on the 13th January, where I will be having three job interviews.

One question I have. Are there any fellow Asthma and Eczema sufferers out there? How have the symptoms been since you moved to Canada? How do you find the treatment compared with the UK?

In the UK we have a pre-payment certificate system, which is invaluable for me. I pay about £120 upfront for 12 months and I get all my prescription drugs/creams charges covered. It works out much much cheaper than £6.75 per item if I paid as and when. Is there something similar in Canada for those of use who have to have regular medication?

Wishing all of you a very Happy and Prosperous New Year.

A search for ASTHMA ALBERTA in the Canada section of the British Expats forum brings up this list of discussion threads.

Alberta Health Care Insurance Plan is the provincial health care insurance plan for which every resident of Alberta is eligible. It's a bit like the NHS in the UK, except that it does not cover dental treatment, prescription drugs outside of a hospital setting, ambulance services, private wards, and a few other services. AHCIP does cover visits to doctors, all tests that doctors prescribe (X-Rays and such), surgery, and drugs administered in a hospital setting. All cancer-related drugs, whether administered in a hospital setting or not, are covered by AHCIP. The premium for AHCIP is C$88 per month per family (defined as two or more persons).

If you get a job that comes with medical and dental benefits, the cost of most of your prescription drugs administered outside of a hospital setting, that is, drugs for which you get a doctor's prescription ad that you purchase from a pharmacy, will be covered by your employer's medical insurance scheme.

Sometimes employer-provided medical insurance has an annual deductible. The Australian word for deductible is excess. I'm not British, and I don't know what the British term is. Anyway, it's an amount that you have to pay yourself before the medical insurance scheme starts paying. If there is a deductible at all, it usually is modest. So you usually pay only a moderate amount out of your own pocket (if you have to pay anything at all).

If you don't have employer-provided medical insurance, you can buy private medical insurance, for example through Alberta Blue Cross.

The Alberta government also offers Non-Group Prescription Drug Coverage . It covers 3,600 prescription drugs. It costs C$123 per family per quarter (C$41 per family per month). Note that that is on top of the basic AHCIP premium of C$88 per family per month, which covers visits to doctors, tests and surgery, but does not cover prescription drugs outside of a hospital setting.

Over-the-counter medications and creams are not covered by any health care insurance plan that I'm aware of.

This is beyond what you asked, but here goes .......

I don't know if you've tried the Buteyko Method (breathing exercises) to manage your asthma. Some of my Australian friends have received great relief from it. Unfortunately it is all but unknown in North America. If you are not familiar with it but want to give it a try, it would be helpful to take the relevant classes while you're still in the UK.

The alternative health folk claim that many eczema sufferers benefit from evening primrose oil capsules and freshly ground flax seeds or cod liver oil tablets (because of their omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acid content respectively) plus use of a sun lamp.

Hope that helps.

I developed both asthma and eczema in the UK as an adult and struggled with both of them. Less than 6 months before moving to Canada I'd had to take 2 weeks off work with asthma that suddenly became uncontrolled. I had discussed the effect a move to Canada might have with my GP and he was pretty convinced it would either have no effect or possibly make it worse. In fact he gave me enough inhalers to last nearly a year to bring with us, just in case. They're still in the bathroom cupboard.

I am pleased to report that 6 months in Canada and I have no eczema and have used salbutamol only twice. I've stopped the other inhalers. I think the fact that we arrived in the middle of summer probably really helped - lots of sun. At least here the weather seems much drier than in the UK, which I think has helped with the asthma. I feel much healthier. I have no idea whether the improvement in symptoms is typical or not however.

Best wishes,
Jen

Three of my kids are asthmatic, one severely. We live in the Fraser Valley which has developed relatively poor air quality over the years. We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in the ER with two kids needing treatment.
Under my med plan in BC, (MSP + work plan through Blue Cross) I still have to pay a couple of hundred $$ towards the cost of the inhalers due to my deductible ($500 this year). The Flovent inhalers (orange ones, not the blue Salbutamol/Ventolin ones) are also restricted to two a year per patient, so if you need more you have to pay about $70 each for them.

As far as symptoms go I don't really know if they are better or worse here. My eldest had terrible eczema, it disappeared here. The other two have still got it and for the severely asthmatic child, it has become very bad and requires constant creams and lotions. When we were out of province recently, his asthma and eczema stopped for the duration. Who knows?

my visiting daughter came for a long walk(2hours) with us the other day up mount finlayson and didnt need her inhaler once! Even she mentioned the difference.

You have the ocean breeze on the Island, it's beautiful. Of all the places I would choose to live in BC if I could, the Island is where I would go. None of the kids had any problems when we came over for a week long break.