Out of Country medical insurance - Covid-19

MDKMDK wrote:

Reisender wrote:

MDKMDK wrote:

Reisender wrote:

MDKMDK wrote:

bjbear wrote:

Reisender wrote:

spud1957 wrote:

bjbear wrote:
In light of the Covid-19 pandemic, have any Canadians on here talked to their insurance company about getting coverage for the 2020/21 season?

Currently Medipac and Bluecross have statements on their websites that excludes Covid from being covered. If that's the case in September I guess we won't be going. Based on the way things are going down there we're not going to gamble.

Yep same with us and everybody we have talked to. Even if they sort out the insurance thing many are hesitant to go until they see what happens on the election. There is a lot of pent up hate and unrest going on right now in the USA. It might be best to see how the election affects things. Our backup plan is southern Spain.

You bring up a good point. Things are really crazy now. Everyone is on a short fuse. I have heard Spain and Portugal are great places, but would not work for us. My wife would never leave our dog for that long!

Weren't Spain and Portugal some of the hardest hit places for the virus?

Spain was hit hard. Portugal not so much. But the worst is over there now. Both Italy and Spain have active plans for reopoening the tourism industry. The snowbird season is particularly important for Spain. Half of Europe is there in the winter. :).

No extra insurance needed for Spain (or most of Europe) as well, as health care procedures are roughly the same cost as Canada. Just get DETAILED receipts and have a 20,000 dollar credit card limit and your good to go until you get the money back from Health Canada via your provincial plan. We do pay for a repatriation policy though. Gets you medically assisted travel back to Canada if needed. We haven’t needed that yet. :)

I'm in Ontario. No provincial plan any more. It didn't cover much anyway. What province are you in that pays you back?
I wouldn't travel anywhere without some sort of emergency medical coverage. Since we don't fly any more, we won't be heading to Europe any time soon.

Probably a misunderstanding here. Canada health covers you anywhere in the world as long as the expense doesn’t exceed that which is allotted to it in Canada. In your case Canada health is administered by OHIP. Here’s an example. Let’s say you have a heart attack and need a bypass. In Canada, depending on the province, the cost will be somewhere around 11000 dollars including hospital care of x amount of days plus the surgeon etc. If it happens in Spain and you get the procedure done it will cost you a comparable amount. In Germany it will be about 30 percent more than Spain. France is in between. Etc etc. Let’s say you are in Germany and it costs you 15000 dollars. Canada (thru your provincial administrator or OHIP for you) will pay up to the amount it would have costs in Canada. You have to submit your receipts to OHIP directly. Takes awhile. Now if you have it done in the USA it could cost you north of 150,000 dollars. You are on the hook for anything north of what Canada will pay. This is why you need travel insurance like medical when travelling to the US. The bill goes to Medipac. Medipac does the leg work and submits the bill to health Canada (via the province) and pays the rest.

For the most part, if you have the slush fund, travel insurance in Europe isn’t needed. I highly recommend buying a repatriation insurance policy for travel though. I reiterate though. It takes awhile (at least in BC) to get your funds back and you don’t know what you are getting until it shows up in your account.

Ah, BC? I think things are done differently in the land of milk and honey.
To the best of my knowledge, OHIP recommends carrying emergency medical insurance for costs incurred outside the province. They never really covered much to begin with, so we do carry extra coverage, as we cross the border regularly, except under the current draconian restrictions and border closing.
https://www.coverme.com/blog/travel/upcoming-changes-to-ohip.html?province=ON&agecode=0

Yah. Every province recommends carrying extra health insurance when travelling but it becomes particularly necessary when travelling to the US. Not so much in Europe. Ontario follows the same rules as all the other provinces and teritorries. Health care is federally funded and provincially administrated so Ontario still has to abide by the rules of the Canada health act. We used to be ontarians so still have the links for the pertinent documents should you need them. If you are only going to the states though the situation should never come up as you will more than likely be purchasing emergency or travel health insurance. They look after all the paperwork with the province if you have a claim. Keeps it simple.

Cheers.