julie2

Hi folks. My husband and I are moving to St John's, Newfoundland within the next 2 months through his work. At present I am 12 weeks pregnant and would like some advice regarding health insurance.

My understanding is that we apply for MCP coverage when we arrive and once approved our maternity costs will be covered. However, I am aware that this approval can take up to three months.

We are in Houston at the moment and our current healthcare insurance does not cover any prenatal costs, only emergency and emergent illness, so transferring current insurance is not a consideration. We will demob back to the UK before being uplifted to Newfoundland, so technically we will be arriving from UK, not Houston.

Does anyone have any suggestions of companies I should/could contact to ensure coverage for the 3 month wait period? This could be tricky as some companies consider pregnancy to be a pre-existing condition. Or any idea of the costs that we would incur for routine checks throughout the pregnancy if we don't have coverage?

Thanks for any advice/suggestions you may have.

dbd33

This fellow is a medical insurance broker http://www.pucherinsurance.com/ I should think someone in that line of work would be your best bet.

Atlantic Xpat

Congratulations on both counts. Your husband is going to be working on the Tower Campus IIRC?

I don't believe there is the three month waiting period for new immigrants/people on work permits that there is in other provinces. There certainly wasn't for me when I landed as an immigrant in 2004. I had a quick look here: http://www.health.gov.nl.ca/health/m...lications.html and couldn't see anything about a waiting period. If there was one then I would suggest your husbands employer should provide insurance to cover. They should also provide extended health benefits to cover medical, prescription, dental and eyecare. The benefits packages for the oil patch here tend to be top of the line.

Under MCP there are zero costs for Materinity treatment, childbirth and follow up. The exception being if you want a private room in the OB ward in which case its $75 for 5 days if your insurance wont cover it.

You should register with a GP who will refer you to an Obstetrician for pre-natal care. Delivery will be at the Case Room at the Health Sciences (main hospital in St. John's). Post birth follow up through community healthcare nurses.

Our second child was born a month ago yesterday. The quality of care received at the Health Sciences has been excellent. An over-zealous paeditrican caused us concerns and a number of follow up tests and consultations for our daughter but they all turned out normal. I'd rather have that than not get attention to issues that might exist.

Sadly my wife has been back in hospital (on the OB ward) for a week with a major blood clot. Again, the quality of care has been good. Today we had all of the half dozen haemotologists in the hospital gathered in her room for a case conference consultation. All we were missing was "House". Of course like many health care systems sometimes the left hand doesn't appear to know what the right hand is doing and there is a lot of hurry up and wait, but our experiences have generally been positive.

If you want anything more specifically on health care or just general moving to St. John's, feel free to drop me a PM.

AX

julie2

Thank you both for your replies. This is a fantastic website and I'm so grateful for your comments.

Congratulations AX on the arrival of your baby girl. That is lovely news! I'm sorry to hear your wife is having a rough time though and we both wish her a speedy recovery.

Your positive experience of the hospital and staff is very reassuring for us both. I was getting confused with the three month period, but have now had it confirmed that it only applies to people moving from another province within Canada.

My husband will be working at Tower Campus...eventually!! This move has been impending since October. Recent developments though indicate that it should be a reality March/April.

Our present posting has been a huge learning curve for us in terms of what benefits we should expect. Routine maternity costs in Houston are horrendous if your insurance doesn't cover so we just want to make sure we have everything organized before moving to Canada! We'll make sure it also includes dental treatment etc as you indicated.

It seems one of our challenges could be to find a GP who is taking on new patients. There seems to be a shortage/demand just now.

I feel so much more reassured about the maternity cover though and what to do when we arrive, so thank you so much for taking the time to respond. Thank you also for the offer of dropping you a PM. I know I will probably have more questions nearer the time or when we arrive!

In the meantime, I hope your wife responds well to all treatment and can be back with her family soon.

pinkmcfarquhar

Hi,

We came over in 2007, and definitely no 3 month wait, got cover straight away.

Finding a doctor might take a bit of patience (no pun intented!). This site is updated every week with which doctors in the province are accepting new patients.

http://www.nmb.ca

I would watch it regularly - a couple of names seem to be on there permanently which I would assume is not a good sign when most people are looking for a doctor. The first doctor I was with was okay, but the practice was very tired and always long waits for a visit and he was on the opposite side of town. I am now with a really good doctor at a practice in town - pm me if you want the details.

on the maternity side of things - Mr AX is definitely the current expert!

julie2

Thank you for the website address. We are just waiting for confirmation that we have got the house that we'd like to rent. It's not ideal I know to make a rental agreement before seeing the property in person but there is so little choice we were too scared to wait. Once we have a confirmed address I'll start looking at those doctors and pm you for advice.

Atlantic Xpat

There are short-term serviced appartments you might go into while looking for a house - if you don't want to rent somewhere sight unseen. Or you could let me or PinkMcF know and we can give you the thumbs up or down

PeddiePooh

Hi Julie,
Congratulations, saw that you planned to move to Newfoundland in 2011 I wonder if you are now in Newfoundland?

This post contains useful information - though I am not yet pregnant hopefully moving to Newfoundland turns my luck around.

All the best

Atlantic Xpat

You gotta have something to do during all the Rain, Drizzle & Fog. That's why big families are quite common around these parts.

julie2

I finally arrived on Friday!

The weather was great over the weekend so it has been a really good start to the new adventure! I am aware the weather can be pretty rubbish, but i left hailstone in Scotland last week! First impressions here
are positive!

This forum is fantastic and I have been given lots of great advice already, for which I am truly grateful!

Send me a pm peddiepooh if you want to meet up when you get here. Do you have any idea when that will be? Bear in mind we were told November 2011 originally, but didn't make it until May 2012!

I'm looking forward to exploring St John's in more depth and finding out what is out there for me to get involved in to meet up with new people.

Hope your planning and packing for the move goes well!

PeddiePooh

Hi Julie

Glad you made it there safe and sound.

I wish I could pm you but I'm new and I think that feature doesn't work unless I post a few messages?

Sure would like to meet you when we get there.

I'm so panic now I quitted my job and it's coming towards thr last two weeks and we haven't heard anything back regards LMO.

I was lOoking forward to seeing the jazz festivals etc...

Hope your first week goes well if fate allows I hope we can meet up too

Peddiepooh x