Medical coverage in Canada for U.S. Resident

Gjac wrote:

garyhaupt wrote:
Gjac..I ain't arguing with you, but I think maybe one should call a CDN hospital to confirm that they would accept the card. The info I got from the Royal Columbian Financial office yesterday is that NO Canadian hospital can accept a US carriers card as they are not issued a US tax number and so do NOT have access to the network.

Not that an insurance company is ever wrong..but it 'could' happen. If in fact, the card is not accepted, the customer pays and then submits the bill for reimbursement.


Gary Haupt

I probably spent 3 hrs on the phone with 3 different people to get an answer and finally asked for a supervisor because I could not get a good answer from the customer care people. What He told me and gave me the page to read it in my EOC is I would be charged $75/visit to the ER and if admitted that fee would be waived. The max fee would be $650 if the hospital stay was more than a week. I would have to pay up front and would be reimbursed by Aetna. My cost in the end would be the same as an in network hospital. It did not matter if I was just traveling through CN to Alaska or staying in CN for the entire summer the coverage was still the same. If I had a heart attack then a stroke etc and the bill came to $1,000,000 or more my total exposure is my max out-of-pocket which is $6700. If you are worried about a chronic health problem like a kidney disease where you need testing every week then you need some kind of travelers insurance. I had a difficult time getting a straight answers even from my insurance agent. I would assume most medicare advantage plans would be similar and would be interested in what other plans say.

Yeah, phone people don't have an easy time with giving straight answers. I can see that you are taking care of business. The amazing thing is the folks that don't...whether non-US residents traveling IN the US or US folks traveling thru a foreign country (Canada). We all dislike paying the money needed to get proper coverage, but one wrong move by some other fool can ruin ones financial well-being. Or even a medical mis-step..like getting really sick from eating oysters...and it was only 3 hrs in Emerg and some tests..$2,700. That was in Oregon and yes, I have coverage. Paid up front and claimed....claim paid.


Gary Haupt