woodmanbg

Just a few days before we were due to return from our summer holiday 2004 our eldest daughter had a bad ear that suddenly got very bad despite treating it with everything the pharmacist recommended, so we had to take her to the hospital at rocky Mountain House for treatment. The receptionist drew our attention to the charges board which, of course, we had to accept, but tongue in cheek I asked if the charges were an different for a non-resident Canadian. Of course she said, didn't asked to see proof of nationality or anything and instead of charging us $400 we were charged $158 (or something near to, cannt quite remember 2004 rates!). the doc. charged us $50. As it really didn't add up to too much we didn't claim on our travel insurance when we returned home.

This year whilst visiting Invermere BC we went to Panorama. Hubby and I tried our hands at skiing and the kids went snowboarding. whilst using the tow our youngest daughter fell backwards severely winding herself and jarring her neck. Of course the mountain rescue were call and she was put in neck brace and stretchered down the hillside to the first aid room, an ambulance was called to take herto the hospital in Invermere.

Whilst booking her in at the hospital the reception was pointing out all the costs etc., and I thought well here goes you might as well ask, it worked the first time "is it any cheaper for a non-resident Canadian". she didn't appear to know what I was talking about so enquired with her supervisor and yes we got charged $158 instead of the $400. We paid them and then we had to pay the Doc separately, as usual, and he took our credit card and charged us $120.

So a few weeks after returning home we received letters from both the health authority and the Doc. the health authority wanting the balance of the $400 and the Doc. wanting his $120.

Well the Docs charge hasnt appeared on our credit card, he says he must have lost the slip, so we are ok with that one. However, we just cannot get the health authority to recognise the difference between non Canadian resident and non-resident Canadian and insist on us paying the balance, which we will have to do.

Have any other non resident Canadians experienced this before, or have you just paid up and claimed on travel insurance? My kids were born in the UK and made Canadian Citizens at birth and will be moving to Calgary later this year (hopefully). I am Canadian by birth (lived in UK over 50 years) and my husband landed December 2005. As we were not moving to Canada until later we did nothing about SINs and health cards obviously. Does BC treat this sort of thing differently to Alberta or were were just lucky in Rocky Mountain House?

stubby1974

i think it is - alberta cover you from day 1 but BC you have to be there for 3 months... friends of mine have just gone to vancover and have to pay extra to be covered from day 1 on their compnay health thingy where when we go to edmonton, we're covered by the local cover from day 1... thats just my personal opinion - hopefully someone will help out given its resident and non resident issues

woodmanbg

Thanks. That is what I thought, but the woman my husband has been corresponding with just cannt differentiate between non-Canadian resident and non-resident Canadian. Either way we have just paid the difference and will probably claim on our insurance for it now.

We do hesitate on claiming smaller amounts because my husband is now 65 and our annual travel insurance is getting more difficult to find because of his age. We have been paying around the £200 mark for annual travel insurance for two adults and two teenagers, and last year when we came to renew it because my husband had been on a course of antibiotics and spent five days in hospital being given them intraveniously theysaid they would still insure him but the policy would go up by £400!!! We then tried the Nationwide, they didnt ask the same questions and we took our our annual insurance with them, but they do not insure you after 65 so we will have to start looking around again when this policy expires soon!

Thanks again.

Piff Poff

No You have to be in Alberta for three months too, and if you have two seperate visa's i.e. a 6 month one followed by a 3 year one, they don't seem to take into account the fact they have you have been here for the longer time until you query it!

Alberta_Rose

Landing as permanent residents, we applied for our Alberta Health-care cards the next day and were covered straight away.

We have been to walk-in clinics and do not get charged.

Judy in Calgary

To expand on Morwenna's point, if you arrive from outside of Canada and take up residence in Alberta, you are eligible for provincial health care insurance from Day 1. In order to qualify, you have to be:

If you arrive in Alberta from another Canadian province, you are eligible to join the provincial health care scheme on the first day of the third month following your arrival. So if you arrive on July 15th, you can join on October 1st. But in that case it would be typical that your previous province would give you three months' worth of coverage following your departure from that province.

But I don't know how this relates to woodmanbg's situation in which the issue is the amount that a non Canadian resident is charged versus the amount that a non-resident Canadian is charged. I don't know anything about that.

Steve_P

Just to add a little more on the health care topic.

I found out recently the the Province of Alberta offers a non-group prescription drug coverage plan at a quite reasonable rate.

To qualify for drug coverage under this plan, you must:

• be a resident of Alberta
• be under the age of 65 years
• be registered with the Alberta Health Care Insurance Plan (AHCIP) and have not opted out of the plan
• not in arrears for AHCIP

For an individual it is $61.50 per quarter.
For a family it is $123 per quarter.

There is a three month wait period before the plan takes effect.

Primarily it covers 3,600 prescriptions drugs. You pay 30% of the cost of each prescription to a maximum of $25 they cover the rest. It also covers other things like ambulance, hospital room (semi-private)


Unfortunately it does not cover diabetes supplies (not including insulin).

More information available here at the Alberta Health and Wellness website.

Cheers
Steve

Piff Poff

OK folks - this is what has happened with us and could happen to others too!!!! (Things happen with us that everybody else contradicts)

1. My husband arrived in April on a 3 month work permit - applied for Alberta Health (had to pass trade exam to be able to get extended permit) he got a 3 year permit in July, Had emergency operation in beginning of July. Alberta Health said he wasn't covered for healthcare as he hadn't been in country for 3 months yet and we would have to pay. We queried this and resent copies of work permits and bingo we don't have to pay.

2. I arrived in June with our daughter and was given 6 month visitors permits, as Steve had already applied for family health care we didn't need to. I needed to go to the Doctors and it cost me $30 for a consult, 80% of the prescription was covered under Steve's work benefits, I was also advised by Doc to wait for my health care card to arrive before I had follow up medical care as it will cost. When work permit eventually arrived in Dec we sent it to Alberta Health, still havn't received our green cards, kind of thinking they are waiting for the 3 month mark to pass before green health cards are issued.

This has meant we hav'nt been able to have a go at skiing and I am waiting for the magic cards to arrive so I can have tests done.

Not everybody gets treated the same way when they land as everybodies situation is different and the situations are treated differently by the different immigration officers on duty. In hindsight my husband wouldn't have come on his own to start work, we would have come with him to do immigration together and I woud have gone back to UK to complete the tidy up of the house etc, but due to time frame we were given (3 months to pass and exam) meant that he had to come quick or we wouldn't be here now and we would still be in UK waiting for our file to be looked at and the job would have dissappeared. I am also sure that people will read this and say 'that doesn't happen' Well it did to us!

Alberta_Rose

I think the key here was maybe in Judy's post: that Alberta Health Care is for Permanent Residents?

I do not know how it works for people on work permits and as such was not contradicting what you said, I simply cited our experience as permanent residents, so keep you hair on.

Piff Poff

All of the comments I make on this site are from our personal experiences too, not all of us here are lucky enough to have recieved PR status - Alberta Healthcare IS available for those who have work permits after (in OUR case) 3 months. My hair is firmly on my bonce. surely when someone asks a question, the more replies they get from different people with different situations is best. So when a question is answered by someone who had a different experience, please (all of you) don't say it's wrong info. Some of the problems we had when we first got here is because we were given incorrect info from our immigration experts (we wish we had done it all on our own) but that is because they just didn't know how things would happen in OUR case. Now I will have a

Alberta_Rose

I still don't see where you thought anyone was saying you were wrong. However you did say "No,You have to be in Alberta for 3 months", and, if that IS the case for WP entrants, it is not the same for PR's is all I said. Go have your perhaps you'll see what I mean then.

Actually, if there was any contradiction it was you contradicting Stubby.

hot wasabi peas

I'm not sure if I'm understanding the above but....

My guess is that the when you were in Invermere and asked about non-resident Canadian rates, they might have (stupidly) assumed that you meant not a resident of BC and that you were covered under another provinces healthcare plan. There are arrangements between the provinces to provide 'out of province' care (did they ask for a provincial healthcard care number?) and perhaps they have different rate for 'out of province' versus 'visitor' fees. I'm not up to speed on that as I've only managed to mangle myself up in my home province.

I guess eventually BCMed figured out that 'non-resident' meant that you lived in another country and were not covered by another provincial healthcare plan and now are billing you for what they should have in the first place. Really, this is only a guess.

And you were probably lucky in Rocky Mountain House or their healthcare bureaucracy is very slow to catch on or the amount due is not worth the cost of getting it back.

stavex

With regard to the non canadian non-resident, and canadian non-resident, there is in fact no difference, at least in BC.

The way the Medical Services Plan of BC works is that you are either covered, through MSP or by reciprocal agreement with the other provinces health insurance (of course, Quebec do not participate!), or you are not covered. BC doctors must charge a set rate for covered patients (through the provincewide billing system), but are in fact free to charge what they like for non-covered patients. OK, the BCMA (BC Medical Association) sets fee guidelines,which most of us use, but when it comes down to it, the doctor has complete liberty to charge what he likes. As long as this is advised up front, there is no comeback. Of course, you can look for a different doctor...

Can't tell you about hospital charges, I would expect a similar attitude.

woodmanbg

Thanks everyone for your thoughts and experiences. Whatever the reason we have paid the bills in full now. We didnt have an Alberta Health number to quote because we havent applied for the cards yet, waiting until we finally move there. Have a good day all!!!

Biiiiink

I looked into healthcare in Alberta as a non-resident canadian citizen, I was in Calgary late in pregnancy in 2003 and was wondering if I'd be covered if anything happened. The answer was no, it's purely based on residency not nationality...*but* having a property there I could have made myself resident in a hurry and been covered that way, but that's not quite what you were asking.

I think it's the same in the UK, isn't it? A lot of people think that it's a British passport that entitles you to NHS treatment when actually it's your residency in the UK that does that...