Ontario Health Card renewal from out of Canada??

joebedford wrote:
Still, there should be an out of country mechanism. I know I'm not alone in this.

No, there absolutely should not be. You can't give a door for fraudsters to use. It's bad enough that the old white and red cards with no photos or security features at all are still accepted.

Jack_Diane_Freedom wrote:
I would also call your supplementary insurance to make sure that they see it the same way OHIP does. A lot of these insurance companies will latch onto anything to weasel out.

This right here is very important.

Just because the Province has no problem with it, doesn't mean that they won't. You don't want to wait until something happens to find out that they do.

They give two months notice. I'm 7 weeks into a 4 month trip.

I know it's my fault for not checking. I did my driver's test 5 months in advance because it was going to expire while I was away.

Still, there should be an out of country mechanism. I know I'm not alone in this.

I always renew mine up to 6 months ahead of the renewal month. Don't they, being OHIP, send out a notice many weeks in advance telling you of your pending renewal?

Toban

You would think so but this is the government we're talking about. "Sense" doesn't necessarily apply.

I'm a little paranoid about this stuff: my truck is insured by State Farm. State Farm knows we go away for the winter - we put on hold DW's car insurance every winter. The premium notice for the truck insurance got lost in forwarding somewhere and I forgot it was due. State Farm to their credit attempted to remind me but they kept calling our home phone but, guess what, nobody answered. Unbeknownst to me, they cancelled my policy. I drove around for a month and 3000 miles with no insurance.

I don't want the same thing to happen with my health insurance.

AND I have a couple of medical appointments scheduled immediately after my return home - I'll have to reschedule them because with no health card - no appointment.

....but that the coverage doesn't lapse and therefore my emergency medical coverage doesn't lapse for the month between my birthday and my return to Ontario.

...there must be thousands of Ontarians (and tens of thousands of other Canadians from other Provinces) traveling long-term abroad over winter with health travel insurance, leaving before their renewal notices arrive, and returning home well after their various Provincial health care cards expire ! So, it makes sense that at least Ontario (and I assume every Province in the country) seems to have non-lapsing health care (ie. 7 month grace period for Ontario residents) for those traveling abroad.

We are fortunate, we've kept our old permanent OHIP cards and we haven't been notified (yet)that they have to be traded in for the new ones. Mine is taped up to prevent it from being completely destructed, the number has to be input manually, it's in such bad shape it can't be scanned!

This a serious topic for all of us, new territory.
Please keep us posted as new information comes in.

I would also call your supplementary insurance to make sure that they see it the same way OHIP does. A lot of these insurance companies will latch onto anything to weasel out.

joebedford wrote:
I phoned them. The first agent couldn't understand the question which is surprising because they must get calls from dummies like me who forgot to renew their card.

The second agent understood and said basically that it's not a problem unless I'm going to be out of the province for more than 7 months (I knew that part - coverage lapses after 7 months). She said I need to renew the card as soon as I get home to Ontario in order to get medical service but that the coverage doesn't lapse and therefore my emergency medical coverage doesn't lapse for the month between my birthday and my return to Ontario.

This is good news but I'm going to send them a letter detailing this phone discussion and ask them to reply in writing that it's not an issue.

I think this is very smart. I would want something in writing just in case I needed coverage during the lapse period.