Medical Insurance

The next step is to apply for your provincial health insurance. You can apply for this immediately or after you apply for your SIN. Either way, you will be required to show proof that you are a landed immigrant

Health care in Canada is provided by the government and each province manages their own health plans. Basically, under the provincial health plan, each person registers for health insurance and you are given a card with your Personal Health Number (PHN) on it.

Whenever you require medical services like check-up, emergency services, etc. You show your card and that's it. No need to pay anything. You do have to pay something for prescription drugs and eye care. But it is subsidized by the government. Here is the link to the various Provincial Health Ministries.

To give you an example on how this works, when my sister gave birth, she was in the hospital for 4 days, her total bill was...$8.50. This is how much it cost her for using the phone in the hospital room. All the other cost like room, doctor, pediatrician, nurses were paid by her medical insurance.

Before you think all of this is free, it is not. Depending on the province and your income, you may have to pay a certain amount every year for your medical insurance. If your income is under a certain level, you pay nothing for medical insurance. After that, you pay a certain level depending on how much you make every year. The higher your income, the higher your premiums. Check out the regulations from your Provincial Health Ministry website to see if you are eligible for premium assistance.

It is important that you register for your Provincial Health Plan as soon as possible. It takes around three (3) months to get your medical insurance in force. Until that time, you have no coverage unless they verify that you were assigned a Personal Health Number (PHN). If you ever require medical services before you receive your PHN. You will have to pay for any medical services you require.

As of this writing, it will cost you more than CAD$2,000 a day for a hospital stay. That does not include doctor's fees, medicine and anything else that you may require. A check-up with a doctor will cost anywhere from $70 to $250.

I suggest you get travel insurance for medical emergencies to cover you until you receive your health insurance. The rates depend on your age, coverage amount and how many there are in your family. There are family rates avaible, make sure you ask for it since this is more economical than individual rates if there are 3 or more in your family.

Each traval insurance plan is different, some you have to pay a deductible and some you don't. Some have a 48 hour waiting period, which means your coverage only starts after 48 hours of applying for the insurance even though you have to apply and pay for it now. You can apply for travel insurance in any local insurance office. Alternatively, you can ask a friend to refer you to an insurance agent.

Plan for this in adavance, nobody told us about this when we first landed. On our third day in Canada, my father's foot got caught in a loose brick on the ground and suffered a sprained ankle. They had to take an x-ray and put a cast on him, they charged us $250 for it. That was back in 1997, medical cost has gone up since.