Health Insurance

Health insurance is supposed to protect the patient from the duty of payment for the medical treatment provided in Canada. In case of serious treatments, the payments reach astronomical amounts. The duty to pay the payment takes the insurance company, with which the patient signed a contract. Of course, the necessary treatment is provided also to the uninsured patient, however after, he has all the responsibility to pay the costs from own resources.

Canada demands that each person entering their territory must have the health insurance, however they don’t have stated the minimum amount of health insurance. If the person doesn’t provide a document stating the health insurance, his entry to Canada can be rejected.

Person coming to Canada must have health insurance which provides:

the whole length of stay or
the beginning of the stay, whereby the person needs to be able to extend the health insurance or to secure different health insurance

The health insurance companies offer health insurance for a travel abroad for different purposes:

tourist/study
work
permanent residence

The price of health insurance depends on the travel purpose. The simplest year travel health insurance costs from 150€, with additional insurance for liability for damage, legal assistance, unlimited medical expenses and other the health insurance costs from 190€. If you like this offer please contact us.

Tourist travel/ Study

It is probably the simplest form of health insurance. It covers the necessary medical treatment. You can get additional insurance:

performing of high-risk sports;
performing of extreme sports;
injury (injury insurance);
luggage (delay/loss);
liability for damages caused by you;
delay of transport;
law assistance;
etc.

If you will stay only in one country during your tourist travel, it is better to get health insurance only for the given country, rather than for the whole world. In this case be careful to be insured also during the journey and possible transfer in a different country.

Work

In case of work residence in Canada, it is necessary to select the type of health insurance:

administrative work or
manual work

Difference is in price of the health insurance. This insurance contains also the tourist insurance. If there is a work injury, the health insurance company controls, whether you had the right type of health insurance. In case of wrong health insurance the health insurance company rejects to pay. A serious employer informs himself, whether your health insurance applies on work you will be doing for him. This way he can avoid future problems for him. Not always, can the employee be covered by the public health insurance in Canada. It depends on the length of the work relationship and on the system of health insurance in a particular province.

Examples of some provinces, when the applicant can get public health insurance:

Ontario - The applicant must meet all of the following conditions:

residence in Ontario lasts at least 3 months;
plans to stay in Ontario for next 153 days from the 12-month temporary residence permit;
has the work contract for a period longer than 6 months;
the employer resides in Ontario;
it is a full-time job.

Alberta - The applicant must meet all of the following conditions:

has the permission for legal residence in Canada for a period of minimum 12-months;
plans to stay in Alberta for a period of 12 months.

Britská Kolumbia - The applicant must meet all of the following conditions:

residence in British Columbia lasts at least 3 months;
plans to stay in British Columbia for a minimum of next 6 months;
has a valid work permit for at least 6 months;
has a work contract for a period longer than 6 months;
the employer resides in British Columbia;
it is a job with a minimum of 18 hours a week.

Permanent residence

A person who got the permanent residence in Canada, and plans to enter the country as the permanent resident, has to purchase a commercial insurance for the first 3 months in Canada. After 3 months, he belongs to the public health insurance valid in Canada, for the Canadian citizens and people with permanent residence in Canada. This 3-month time limit doesn’t apply to people, who chose Alberta province as their destination. In this province, even the new immigrants belong to the public health insurance, since their entry of the province.

For people who need insurance, is recommended the type of insurance as for work residence. With this you need to be careful, as many insurance companies have an insurance lock-out for the country of permanent residence, in this case Canada is the country of permanent residence of the insurant.

How to get insured:

insurance bought before the departure from home country;
insurance bought in Canadian commercial insurance company(Blue Cross and etc.) however this is more expensive;
depending on the province and other conditions, you can get a provincial health insurance as Canadian citizens do. Whether, in a province chosen by you, you can use the local health system, we can advise and inform you individually, because of the extensiveness of the conditions.

When choosing insurance from home country, be careful that:

not all the insurance companies offer insurance for stay over of continuous 90 days;
Canadian employer might not give you the job, because you don’t have insurance covering the performance of the job;
for people who permanently leave to Canada (they got the permanent residence in Canada) most insurance companies have an insurance lock-out for the country of permanent residence;
not all the insurance companies offer the option to insure only a chosen country-Canada (at this point the insurance is more profitable);
in the contract you need to carefully read the insurance lock-out.

List of websites of the health insurance in particular provinces/ territories:

Practical advice on how to find a medical care in Canada:

if you have the commercial insurance contact first your operator (this way you can avoid potential problems with refunding the medical care to the insurance company);
in case of medical emergency call 9-1-1 (from further distances call „0“ and the operator will respond);
in case of not-life threatening injury visit the ambulant workplace.

In case of necessary ambulant treatment, you need to pay for the medical care given to you. It might happen that you need to pay an extra of $50 or even 100$ for the medical examination by the performing doctor. In case of hospitalisation, the hospital will contact your health insurance company immediately on your behalf. Therefore, always have the telephone number on your health insurance company with the number of your insurance contract with you.

Because you need to pay for the medical care by cash, keep all the documents about the payment safe, so that later on you can get a refund from your health insurance company. The amount of your financial cover should be sufficient, so that you don’t return from Canada with a souvenir of debts worth ten thousands for the medical care.

Dentist visit

Payments for dental treatment differ according to the dentist and a particular treatment. When visiting a dentist you can safe some money, by visiting a local university of medicine, where a minor surgery is done by a student of stomatology in presence of a real dentist. System of health care in Canada doesn’t include dental treatment.