London_Based

Hi everyone

I am emigrating to Vancouver from the UK in around four weeks time and needless to say am incredibly excited though also a little daunted! I have a permanent resident visa and will be starting a new job shortly after my arrival.

Firstly I would be grateful if anyone can advise me on the best or a recommended company from whom I could purchase the medical insurance for the first three months i am in Canada and how much I ought to be budgeting. I understand this three months is the length of time it will take for my health card to come through, assuming i register with a local doctors' surgery straight away.

Secondly I have read that medicare in Canada covers only certain treatments. Should I be taking out additional insurance once i have medicare to cover additional treatments? My employer states that after my probation the company benefits package will cover me for MSP, dental, extended health, long term disability. To be honest i don't really understand what is and isn't covered. Apologies if this has all been answered before but from my research so far it is not clear to me what is covered through the medicare scheme and what is not, plus obviously the company benefits package confuses things further. It would be really helpful to tap into your collective wisdom.

Thank you in advance for any advice you might be able to offer. I have so much to organise and my to do list just seems to keep growing!

London_Based

JonboyE

You must first register with MSP before you look to register with a doctor. How to Enrol - Province of British Columbia

Make this a priority. The wait time before you are covered is the balance of the month you enroll plus two months.

MSP covers doctors visits, referrals to specialists and in-hospital care. Other things like prescription drugs, dentistry, glasses, physiotherapy are user pay. The extended benefits plan your employer has will likely cover a large part of these additional costs but each plan is different. Your employer should give you a booklet detailing the coverage.

It is a good idea to have private cover for catastrophic health emergencies for the months until MSP kicks in. Follow this link Medical Insurance-Canada : British Expat Wiki I just looked online with Pacific Blue Cross and they are quoting $417 for a 20-30 year old.

Unless your probation period is exceptionally long I don't think it is worth the effort to find private extended health cover. TBH I don't think these policies are very good value unless the employer is paying the bulk of the premiums.

London_Based

Again, thank you very much. I will take a good look through.

Gazzae

Hi,

I bought insurance through https://www.visitorsinsurance.ca/ the actual insurance policy we got was with Allianz. It cost $684 for two adults in their 30s and a 18 month old. We also paid for zero deductible.

2 weeks after arriving we had to take my daughter to hospital with bad croup causing breathing difficulties - she was admitted for 2 days. We opened a claim with Allianz and it was all very quick and easy - they contacted the hospital and sorted everything, we didn't have to pay out a penny.
We recently got the documents through detailing what Allianz covered - the cost was around $6,500 so glad we had the insurance!

London_Based

Thank you Gazzae - info much appreciated. I am a single man in my thirties so expect it will come in a little less.

Engineer_abroad

My company purchased temporary medical insurance (first 3 months prior to MSP and company benefits program kicking in) for me and my wife through MSH International.

Don't know how much it was I'm afraid but maybe worth a look.

Allie73

We used Blue Cross.

withabix

Pacific Blue Cross.

We did too.

If you keep the receipt, it is tax deductible eventually - I've just claimed tax relief on my receipt which covered Nov 2013 - Feb 2014 on this year's tax return.