Crippling insurance costs
Just got a quote back for supplementary travel insurance to stay at our little place in Texas for 4 months. Cannot afford to take it out but the consequences could be grave if we do not. Damned if we ...
Forum Discussion
alfredmay wrote:
I don't know where you are getting your information from but here is info for rates in Vancouver from 2012. It shows an emergency room visit is $725, the daily ward rate is $3235 and intensive care is $8120. These are non resident rates. Uninsured resident rates vary from about 1/4 to 2/3 of the non resident rate depending on the hospital.
The link is from David Cummings Insurance Services Limited. His company suggests buying at least a $50,000 policy for Americans visiting Canada.
http://www.david-cummings.com/documents/canadian_hospital_rates.htm
HealthQuotes.ca paints a more expensive picture.
http://www.healthquotes.ca/blog/2012/07/05/Canadian+Hospital+Costs.aspx
This info is from 2012 and is for non residents. It seems to show that health care costs for hospitals is not the same across Canada. Looks like a 19 day stay in BC would run around $65,000 without any time in ICU. In the prairies 3 days in ICU and 10 days in a regular ward could run $98,000.
REGION
DAILY WARD
INTENSIVE CARE
Ontario
$1,724 - $3,324
$3,048 - $5,785
Prairies*
$3,148 - $4,998
$8,233 - $16,000
British Columbia
$3,235 - $3,385
$8,120 - $12,350
As an American I can see that a hospital stay in Canada could be quite expensive if I am not covered by insurance. My government supplied US Medicare policy and my former employer's retirement policy do not cover me in Canada unless I am traveling directly to Alaska.
Yah it's difficult to get information for rates for non residents. Research what you can and find that comfort zone. It gets even more difficult for Europe as each country has it's own rate and of course the language barrier. I speak read and write 4 languages and that helps somewhat.
Cheers.
