CANADIAN HEALTHCARE vs. US MEDICAL COVERAGE

[Todd&Dani 0]

Interesting to read that the 6 months travel ins. idea will work, and some others have used this route as well. I really don't plan to make any claims on it, of course. God forbid if I am become ill enough or injured badly enough to have to be returned to Canada for medical attention....my Immigration to the US and the K1 petition will become quickly the 2nd most important thing on my mind and I would probably want to come back under those circumstances anyway. I fortunately don't take any medications.

T

[AddyG 0]

My husband was able to add me to his policy without paying anything but when we were looking into it we found out (on day 29) that for a spouse to be added for free, it had to be done within 30 days of our marriage! All they needed was a copy of the marriage certificate. They did not require a SSN or care that I was still a resident of Canada. He was able to select when to "activate" coverage for me and we had no need to do it then. We started it this January (and have to pay a bit more now that I am active on his plan) but it's very reasonable.

[♥Stiggy♥ 0]

I wouldnt dare try to come back upto Canada to see a doctor to use provincial medical.. my son has had to go to hospitals out of province for lenghty stays, and each time, it flagged the account.

I was told by OHIP and NS Health the same, that if you have a claim and you live out of province, they look indepth to make sure you do qualify to have it paid, before they pay it.

Last time it happend to us, we were in Toronto visiting from NS , and my son was taken to Sick Kids and admitted there for a week... we had a lovely $20K bill that took 4 months to get paid until NS health paid it

[Gypsyangel 11]

It seems that everyone's experience is a little different. This is mine: I got immigrant insurance from Seven Corners (you can google it ... they have inbound immigrant insurance). Hubby could add me to his insurance after we could produce a marriage certificate, but it still took almost 8 weeks for them to add me. And they made it as onerous as possible in that he had to go down to their offices and wait and show the certificate, etc.

I'd only bought insurance for 4 weeks, but it was really easy to extend (it's easy to do online and it's "instant") so I remained covered until we got notice that I was covered under his insurance.

I didn't have to make a claim on the immigrant insurance so I can't comment on how good it is, but I felt better having it. Yet another hit to the wallet in this process!

[SonoranSongbird 3]

I got immigrant insurance from Seven Corners (you can google it ... they have inbound immigrant insurance).

That's the one my husband used. He also did not need to make a claim, but at least in terms of dealing with them getting coverage started and information on how to use it if he needed to, he was very happy with them. It also was not very expensive, and one nice feature is you can extend it if it turns out you need to later on.