Canada is a place of opportunity, known for its publicly funded health care system that covers medically necessary services – but that is just for Canadian residents. If you don’t have residency, you can be faced with enormous healthcare costs when the unexpected happens.
While Canada aims to welcome 500,000 new residents each year, the path to establish residency can be a hurdle for thousands of immigrants living in Canada without Provincial healthcare coverage. If you are a Canadian returning to Canada but are your GHIP coverage has expired after being out of country, you may not immediately have reinstated, and you will remain financially unprotected when illness or injury strikes until it is in place.
It was a hefty hospital bill for Ella
Uninsured people in Canada face sky-high healthcare bills and delays in treatment. Consider what happened to Ella, a foreign student from Nigeria studying in Manitoba. Ella was working hard as a medical student and hadn’t had mental health issues. Then she began to feel depressed and feeling that her life was in danger, Ella called Winnipeg police for help.
For her protection Ella was admitted to the hospital under a ‘involuntary psychiatric hold’ for nine days. The bill for her medical care was significant — $38,311 — $1,077 for Ella’s emergency department visit and $5,322 per night for seven nights in a hospital ward bed.
Why was Ella faced with this bill? These are the charges this hospital had for patients from outside of Canada (patients within Canada who had a valid health care are not charged anything). Health insurance for foreign students is usually covered by tuition, but Ella was only registered in one class and a minimum of three classes was required for her health insurance to kick in.
With no health insurance, the biggest worry Ella and her family had besides her health was the cost of the hospital stay because they didn’t want debt. But even though Ella was doing well, her credit score dropped because of her unpaid hospital bill, and she had to negotiate a repayment plan. Worst still, Canada Border Services Agency investigated Ella’s student visa because there is a mandate to deport non-residents who have not paid significant medical bills. Fortunately, Ella did obtain resident status, but her hospital bill is still in dispute.
David had unexpected health trouble and big healthcare costs
Global News reported on the financial difficulty David and his family face. On their flight from home in the U.K., David had a minor cough at Heathrow airport but hours into the flight from Canada, began feeling really unwell. He was put on oxygen during the flight and when he landed in Calgary, he was assessed by paramedics and advised to see a doctor or go to the hospital due to a chest infection.
Four days later David was admitted to hospital and placed in intensive care – he was not only fighting lung infections, but also had kidney failure and needed dialysis. He remained unconscious for days.
David’s family faced an ever-growing medical bill – perhaps amounting to a quarter of a million dollars — as the days passed. Why? He had considered getting travel insurance before the family trip, but thought the cost was too high. He also thought he would be covered by his credit card insurance because he had used to the card to book his trip. Unfortunately, when it comes to medical travel insurance, credit card coverage has age limits, trip length limits and coverage limits or exclusions for pre-existing conditions – and David’s chest was present before he got on the plane, so he was not covered.
Any visitor to Canada should be prepared for medical emergencies with travel insurance
As a visitor to Canada, you should know that your medical insurance from your home country will likely not cover you for unexpected emergencies in Canada. In fact, the Government of Canada highly recommends that all visitors have a $100,000 minimum in travel insurance coverage, since Canadian medical care can be extremely costly if you aren’t a resident.
It is very important to get travel medical insurance, and it should be tailored to you so that should you get sick unexpectedly or have an accident you are not financially responsible for most medical bills. The cost of coverage is worth the financial protection you get.
There are travel insurance coverage options cover you, and even your family, in case of an unexpected medical emergency. Every Visitors to Canada plan is different, but most plans will cover
- Emergency physician service fees, and some follow-up visits
- Hospital care
- Ambulances
- X-rays and lab tests
- Prescription medication
- Emergency dental services (relief of dental pain)
- 24/7 emergency assistance.
It is possible to purchase coverage before arriving in Canada, so there was no waiting period for any claims related to sickness. If you purchase it after arriving, there is generally a 48-hour waiting period for your coverage to be in effect.
Plans are available that do not ask any medical questions regardless of your age – you just have to meet eligibility requirements (which are based on your health). For other plans, if you are under age 60, you do not need to complete a Medical Health Questionnaire when you apply for coverage, but if you are older, you must answer a straight-forward 3-question Medical Health Questionnaire to determine the cost of your policy. You can get a special family rate for your spouse and children if they are travelling with you.
If you are coming to Canada, plan for emergency healthcare costs – and call us
Wherever you or your family and friends are headed, being prepared for unexpected situations, like accidents or medical emergencies, is crucial. That’s why—before you travel—covering yourself and/or your family with comprehensive travel insurance is the way to go.
If you are a visitor to Canada, a foreign worker or an international student, we offer Visitors To Canada coverage from TuGo, GMS, Destination Travel or Manulife. Call us at SBIS Monday to Friday 8:45 a.m. – 4:45 p.m. Eastern Time at 1-800-667-0429 or 416-601-0429 or go online. We’re happy to help you find the right plan for you.
