OMA Membership vs CMA membership

[strawberryjams]

Hi guys, the OMA membership costs 10$ a year. The CMA is 12$.

I know it is possible to take disability insurance/life insurance via OMA. There is also discounts available for good life membership.

 Is there any advantage to signing up with CMA? I know its 12$ but at this point I am just curious if there is any use paying the 12$.

Thank you

[LittleDaisy]

45 minutes ago, strawberryjams said:

Hi guys, the OMA membership costs 10$ a year. The CMA is 12$.

I know it is possible to take disability insurance/life insurance via OMA. There is also discounts available for good life membership.

 Is there any advantage to signing up with CMA? I know its 12$ but at this point I am just curious if there is any use paying the 12$.

Thank you

The only thing that CMA offers for a medical student is MD financials. You need to be a CMA member, but to become a CMA member, you need to sign up with OMA first.

I enjoyed their financial planning with me when I was a medical student, and their advices on disability insurance, setting up a budget to pay back my debt, etc. All for free! They also recommend accountants to do your taxes for free (pretty simple for medical student, but might as well get it done for free by a professional).

I won't recommend investing with MD financials, but as a medical student & resident physician, we do get a sweet deal for free!

[strawberryjams]

4 minutes ago, LittleDaisy said:

The only thing that CMA offers for a medical student is MD financials. You need to be a CMA member, but to become a CMA member, you need to sign up with OMA first.

I enjoyed their financial planning with me when I was a medical student, and their advices on disability insurance, setting up a budget to pay back my debt, etc. All for free! They also recommend accountants to do your taxes for free (pretty simple for medical student, but might as well get it done for free by a professional).

I won't recommend investing with MD financials, but as a medical student & resident physician, we do get a sweet deal for free!

Hi LittleDaisy that was super helpful. I think CMA also offers textbooks online. BTW for OMA membership, do we need proof of enrolment or just pay the fee? 

Thank you!

[MDwannabe02]

2 hours ago, strawberryjams said:

Hi guys, the OMA membership costs 10$ a year. The CMA is 12$.

I know it is possible to take disability insurance/life insurance via OMA. There is also discounts available for good life membership.

 Is there any advantage to signing up with CMA? I know its 12$ but at this point I am just curious if there is any use paying the 12$.

Thank you

Are you sure of those costs? I was under the impression that student memberships for CMA would be free starting in 2019. I believe it was in an email that came out around the same time as the announcement of the sale of MD Financial Management to Scotiabank. 

[NLengr]

CMA had a ton of textbooks and journals online. Also some discounts on stuff. 

As for MD financial access, I don't know of this is true anymore. The CMA recently sold MD Financial to Scotiabank (don't get me started on that deal.....) in order to focus on advocacy (again, very stupid in my opinion). Scotia said a CMA membership would no longer be needed to access MD Financial I seem to recall. 

[Rekabnire]

I signed up recently (not OMA, but I did do the provincial + CMA combo) and they said it was free for the incoming class. I paid the student fee but they refunded it.

As for benefits, clinical key (which has the free e-textbooks mentioned above) seems like a pretty good resource you get for free. I set it up and you can access it on mobile through the CMA's Joule app. They also have pretty great deals with Telus. I also just upgraded my phone this week, switched from Bell, and got a CMA exclusive plan. I priced the plan at Telus and it works out to almost half off with the CMA discount. (EDIT: even the guy at the Telus store was impressed with the deal and told me I should go for it rather than going through him)

The phone plan alone was enough of an incentive for me to sign up because I've already made my money back (even though I didn't pay anything haha).

[strawberryjams]

11 minutes ago, Rekabnire said:

I signed up recently (not OMA, but I did do the provincial + CMA combo) and they said it was free for the incoming class. I paid the student fee but they refunded it.

As for benefits, clinical key (which has the free e-textbooks mentioned above) seems like a pretty good resource you get for free. I set it up and you can access it on mobile through the CMA's Joule app. They also have pretty great deals with Telus. I also just upgraded my phone this week, switched from Bell, and got a CMA exclusive plan. I priced the plan at Telus and it works out to almost half off with the CMA discount. (EDIT: even the guy at the Telus store was impressed with the deal and told me I should go for it rather than going through him)

The phone plan alone was enough of an incentive for me to sign up because I've already made my money back (even though I didn't pay anything haha).

it doesnt cost to sign up? really?

[insomnias]

36 minutes ago, Rekabnire said:

I signed up recently (not OMA, but I did do the provincial + CMA combo) and they said it was free for the incoming class. I paid the student fee but they refunded it.

As for benefits, clinical key (which has the free e-textbooks mentioned above) seems like a pretty good resource you get for free. I set it up and you can access it on mobile through the CMA's Joule app. They also have pretty great deals with Telus. I also just upgraded my phone this week, switched from Bell, and got a CMA exclusive plan. I priced the plan at Telus and it works out to almost half off with the CMA discount. (EDIT: even the guy at the Telus store was impressed with the deal and told me I should go for it rather than going through him)

The phone plan alone was enough of an incentive for me to sign up because I've already made my money back (even though I didn't pay anything haha).

If it's one of these, that doesn't seem so great https://www.cma.ca/Assets/assets-library/document/en/non-gated%20CMA%20ENGLISH%202yr%20EPP%20June%202014-e.pdf

[Rekabnire]

14 hours ago, insomnias said:

If it's one of these, that doesn't seem so great https://www.cma.ca/Assets/assets-library/document/en/non-gated CMA ENGLISH 2yr EPP June 2014-e.pdf

It seems like that's the regular CMA discount (that you can get any time of year), but they do offer special promos that are better - I got one that was only valid for June. 

The prices depend on the province anyway, so I can't really comment on those specific prices . The plan I got, when I priced it in the store, was about $180/month after tax. With the regular 30% off for the CMA discount, it came to just under $130/month after tax. The promo I got was $87/month + tax, so $100.05/month. (I realize that still sounds high but compared to the regular local prices it's a steal - the deal was $67/month in other provinces).  Previously, I was paying about $120/month with another carrier, I had to pay $300 for the phone up front, and I didn't have half the data I have now - and that was with an employee discount applied. It may not be a steal for everyone depending on the plan you already have, but it was definitely worth it for me.

15 hours ago, strawberryjams said:

it doesnt cost to sign up? really?

Apparently! I paid both fees through the provincial medical association, and they emailed back saying "Please note that we have refunded $15.00 back to your MasterCard for as a new student you are offered complimentary fees for 2018". (It was only $15 because they prorate it if you sign up part way through the year. The $15 was provincial + CMA).