Health Insurance & Cellphone coverage for trip to Canada

Headed to NB, NS & NL as well. Total time will be about 2 months.

Current phone plan is to get a Rogers prepaid simcard & put it in an unlocked phone.

LI-camper - regarding out-of-country insurance - we use Seven Corners (DW on medicare) when we go north - look on line. You pay based on length of stay, you can choose level of coverage. Always get it, never needed it so far! If you just want a sim card, check out a chain electronics store called The Source www.thesource.ca - they were recommended to us, but I just went with a temporary global plan from Verizon. Pay-as-you go from Walmart would also work - either way you need to distribute your new phone number to anyone who may need to reach you, too... ST

Does anybody know if I can get a SIM card

If your phone is unlocked you could find a sim card that will work at Walmart or Best Buy or Staples here in Canada but I would check with your current carrier to see if they have a plan.

If you are on Medicare do you have a supplement plan also. Most of the plans will cover you in Canada. Only the 2 cheapest plans do not have foreign coverage. If you have an Advantage Plan you may be out of luck. Each Advantage plan has their own limits.

I just checked my records, Plans C,D,F,G,M all have foreign coverage. $250. deductible. These Medigap (supplements) are all the same regardless of the company offering them.

Check area coverage for the phone first. Looks like many areas are marginal at best.

You can get a sim card from Petro Canada for their phone plan. However, I have no experience with their service. I am also not sure how many Petro Can's you'll see out East. From what I've seen, the maritimes are predominately Irving gas stations.

PC mobile from President's Choice (I believe that would be Atlantic Superstore out east) have relatively cheap phones and plans, just don't know how cost effective they are considering that you only need it for 3 weeks. It uses the Bell network so you'll have more than just a local coverage area.

Again, I am the OP. Thanks for all the great responses. I have checked my secondary health insurance and they will cover me when I'm outside the U.S. Also I checked that my iPhone is unlocked. I need to wait until I'm actually in Canada to buy a SIM card. Apparently many places sell them with inexpensive plans. Without a cell phone, the emergency road service plan I have would not be very useful. By looking at cell phone coverage maps, I can see that Rogers and Bell providers have good coverage in NB,NS and PEI.

First Rogers store for me will be about 15 minutes into Canada from the Calaise crossing.

Maybe someone mentioned this, but it's my understanding that Medicare will pay any medical expenses as long as you're traveling through Canada on your way to AK. If you're just touring Canada, they won't pay, have to be going to AK.