CANADIAN HEALTHCARE vs. US MEDICAL COVERAGE

[MapleLeafBaby 1]

How does it work?

I hear that you cannot be added on your spouses medical coverage until you receive your adjusted status.

As soon as you move to the US, is that the end of your Canadian Health Care?

Does this mean as soon as I move, we have to start paying for our medical care?

I would like to do things 100% legit, but how would the Canadian Healthcare system know, if you were up here in the first little while and visited your Dr? Just curious

[Sprailenes 47]

It all depends. I was put on my husbands the day we could produce a marriage certificate. Some people have had problems and others haven't.

[JillA 2]

It all depends. I was put on my husbands the day we could produce a marriage certificate. Some people have had problems and others haven't.

Yup that's right! As soon as we were married I was added, even without an SSN. However some companies require SSN, every case is different. Your fiancee should check in advance and if you can't be added right away, you should consider private insurance just in case of emergency.

[trailmix 77]

How does it work?

I hear that you cannot be added on your spouses medical coverage until you receive your adjusted status.

As soon as you move to the US, is that the end of your Canadian Health Care?

Does this mean as soon as I move, we have to start paying for our medical care?

I would like to do things 100% legit, but how would the Canadian Healthcare system know, if you were up here in the first little while and visited your Dr? Just curious

I can't remember which province you are from poprocks - however in some provinces you can buy coverage - in Alberta they will let you buy coverage for up to 3 months - now that would be good for visiting your Dr. in Canada - completely useless in the U.S.

[Kathryn41 3,205]

Canadian health coverage is provided for residents of Canada. If you are not living in Canada, you are not eligible to have Provincial health coverage. How will they know? They will find out, perhaps not right away, but they will and you will be liable to repay any benefits you have falsely received. In order to become a permanent resident in the US you also need to cut residential ties with Canada - you can only live in one country at a time. If you are claiming Canadian residency by claiming health benefits and USCIS finds out, you could be denied US residency - no green card.

As well, once you cross the border and activate your K-1 visa, if you leave the US (ie for a 'quick' visit to your Canadian doctor) and try to return without either your green card or what is called Advance Parole, you will be denied re-entry to the US. A K-1 is good for a one time entry only. Once you are married you apply for a green card (AOS) and you can apply for Advance Parole at the same time. The green card will take a number of months - on average 6 to 8 - to be approved. The AP will take about 3 months, so you will not be able to 'visit' Canada for approximately 3 months after you apply for the AOS, which you can't do until after you are married. You are facing a number of months with no access to a Canadian practitioner even if you did want to claim benefits illegally.

That being said, health insurance in the US is totally different than in Canada. Your US spouse may be able to add you to his employment based plan depending on what their requirements are. They will charge him a larger premium and they will probably only allow him a limited window of opportunity during which to add you - at your marriage or at his annual enrollment anniversary. He needs to check and find out what is involved from his Benefits person at work. You should be qualified for some sort of health coverage long before you receive your green card and probably before you receive your AP.

One question to look at is how much is it going to cost. Even with insurance you will likely be paying co-pays - that is upfront payments for doctor's visits, prescriptions, hospitalization etc. The amount of the co-pay is something that is determined by the type of health coverage insurance you have and how large your deductible is (what you have to pay out of pocket first before insurance kicks in).

So, yes, if you have any medical concerns or needs at all, get them taken care of now while you are still in Canada. And your fiance should be investigating how to get some sort of short-term health insurance coverage to cover you from when you arrive to when he can enroll you on his plan.

Edited March 6, 2009 by Kathryn41

[MapleLeafBaby 1]

Canadian health coverage is provided for residents of Canada. If you are not living in Canada, you are not eligible to have Provincial health coverage. How will they know? They will find out, perhaps not right away, but they will and you will be liable to repay any benefits you have falsely received. In order to become a permanent resident in the US you also need to cut residential ties with Canada - you can only live in one country at a time. If you are claiming Canadian residency by claiming health benefits and USCIS finds out, you could be denied US residency - no green card.

As well, once you cross the border and activate your K-1 visa, if you leave the US (ie for a 'quick' visit to your Canadian doctor) and try to return without either your green card or what is called Advance Parole, you will be denied re-entry to the US. A K-1 is good for a one time entry only. Once you are married you apply for a green card (AOS) and you can apply for Advance Parole at the same time. The green card will take a number of months - on average 6 to 8 - to be approved. The AP will take about 3 months, so you will not be able to 'visit' Canada for approximately 3 months after you apply for the AOS, which you can't do until after you are married. You are facing a number of months with no access to a Canadian practitioner even if you did want to claim benefits illegally.

That being said, health insurance in the US is totally different than in Canada. Your US spouse may be able to add you to his employment based plan depending on what their requirements are. They will charge him a larger premium and they will probably only allow him a limited window of opportunity during which to add you - at your marriage or at his annual enrollment anniversary. He needs to check and find out what is involved from his Benefits person at work. You should be qualified for some sort of health coverage long before you receive your green card and probably before you receive your AP.

One question to look at is how much is it going to cost. Even with insurance you will likely be paying co-pays - that is upfront payments for doctor's visits, prescriptions, hospitalization etc. The amount of the co-pay is something that is determined by the type of health coverage insurance you have and how large your deductible is (what you have to pay out of pocket first before insurance kicks in).

So, yes, if you have any medical concerns or needs at all, get them taken care of now while you are still in Canada. And your fiance should be investigating how to get some sort of short-term health insurance coverage to cover you from when you arrive to when he can enroll you on his plan.

Thanks for the info

The good thing is that both my fiance and his brother are Dr's.... so for general stuff, we should be ok... I was just more concerned for emerg stuff.... I guess we'll just have to try and get us added onto his plan as soon as possible

[TheATeam 0]

I was also added to my husband's plan as soon as we could produce our marriage certificate. We didn't need to have my SSN which was good. Definitely check with your soon to be husband's medical coverage before you move!

[Todd&Dani 0]

Here is an idea I thought of, those more experienced care to let me/us know if it would work or not; I live in Ontario and called CAA and asked them, you can buy a 6-month travel insurance plan which will cover you in the US for 6 months. That will get you almost through AOS? I think that would work nicely....?

T

[Udella&Wiz 325]

I was added to my husband's plan as soon as we moved - until the few weeks later we were considered 'common-law' I suppose and then naturally we married.

How a particular Healthcare company determines elgibility for a spouse or common-law partner is individual to the company itself, although i'm sure there are stat regulations.

I didn't read too far - how long will it be til the wedding? If it's really long, why not go to the JP and get hitched to help with that benefit (hey - plus you could file the AOS early!) and then still plan the bigger faily wedding - a load of people have done that here.

[thetreble 19]

Here is an idea I thought of, those more experienced care to let me/us know if it would work or not; I live in Ontario and called CAA and asked them, you can buy a 6-month travel insurance plan which will cover you in the US for 6 months. That will get you almost through AOS? I think that would work nicely....?

T

That is what I did. I bought CAA coverage for 6 months and used it successfully. However, just to warn you, I had to go back and forth between CAA and the doctors a million times to get them to pay one or two bills. It took CAA about 4 months to actually pay it and for me to stop getting overdue notices by the hospital.

[Emancipation 2]

Here is an idea I thought of, those more experienced care to let me/us know if it would work or not; I live in Ontario and called CAA and asked them, you can buy a 6-month travel insurance plan which will cover you in the US for 6 months. That will get you almost through AOS? I think that would work nicely....?

T

That is what I did. I bought CAA coverage for 6 months and used it successfully. However, just to warn you, I had to go back and forth between CAA and the doctors a million times to get them to pay one or two bills. It took CAA about 4 months to actually pay it and for me to stop getting overdue notices by the hospital.

I asked the travel insurer what the travel insurance policy meant if something went terribly wrong, and if they would do everything they could to fly me back immediately to Canada for medical treatment (under CDN health care coverage). They said that was the case. They would give me minor treatment here in the US , but for anything serious (as long as I was stabilized) the travel policy would warrant that I be sent home to Canada for provincial medicare to take over. That was a huge factor in us deciding to get emergency only insurance (it was like $50.00 a month or something cheap) here in the US for a couple of months. I too had friends here in the US who are physicians and who took a look at minor things for me (I had a bee sting that got ugly and needed a birth control prescription etc.)

What I did do before i left canada was have all my meds filled (had Blue Cross) for a full year before I left. I took all my meds with me and Blue Cross paid for a whole years supply at one time which was awesome. Meds are WAY more expensive here from my experience, so it saved us a LOT of money that first year!

[SonoranSongbird 3]

Poprocks, your fiance should talk to the benefits coordinator to find out what he needs to do to add you to his insurance. Most likely, you can be added as soon as you are married.

You do not want to wait for AOS! For most employers, you will have a much more difficult time with this if you do are not added within a certain time (usually 60 days) of getting married. Adding a beneficiary is considered a change in benefits, and ordinarily that can only be done during "benefits choice periods." Your marriage is a change in circumstances that allows him to make the change outside of that period. People who come on spousal visas usually have to go through some additional hoops to be added because they want to be added when they move here, which is after the marriage (Mrs Cat had to show her husband's benefits coordinator that she needed to be added to his insurance because she no longer had other coverage).

My husband got private "inbound immigrant" health insurance to cover the gap. He never had to make a claim on it, but at least as far as them setting him up with coverage and providing information he needed, he was very pleased with it. I'll see if I can find the link for you. I am doing work in another window, so it might be a bit later.

[Udella&Wiz 325]

Missed that - AOS has NOTHing to do with whether you're eligible for insurance, don't get the 2 intertwined! . Checking with his beenfits coordinator is good solid advice as mentioned above

[Udella&Wiz 325]

Sorry - I may have sounded crusty in my previous post

A good analogy is; If I move from Alberta to Ontario, I am no longer covered by Alberta's healthcare system (my taxes aren't paying for it) So If you move out of country (thus out of province, your provincial care terminates). Even Out of country coverage has it's issues as Emancipation mentions since you can't just return to Canada on a whim because of the whole AOS situation.

Will it be avery long before you marry?

[SonoranSongbird 3]

Check this thread. There are a few links in it. I am not sure which is the one my husband got, but I'll ask him and get back to you. I checked both of the clickable links and both still work, but I couldn't tell just looking at their web pages which one we used. The people who posted them seemed happy enough with them.