eiloo

Hello,

I will be leaving for the US on my K-1 visa next Thursday and was wondering if any Canadians that have moved had any concerns about travel/health insurance. Since we have provincial health plans, we're covered in the province we live in... However, when outside of the province, we're on our own.

So my question is that are there any recommended companies for temporary/travel insurance? I would be without for about 50 days... I don't have any pre-existing medical conditions. I'm thinking of foregoing it as it may just be an added expense for no reason... but if there is a CHEAP alternative... I wouldn't mind getting it.

As I won't be returning to Canada (at least no definitive time period), I would end the coverage on the date I get married as I would then be covered under my then wife's policy. Will that be a problem if they knew I was not returning?

Thanks,
Ian

canuk_32

ask at the Caisse Populaire. I once got a travel/health insurance there when i was visiting the USA.

Sharon S.

In Manitoba you are covered by Manitoba Health for the month that you leave
Canada and two months more. Check the website for health insurance in your
province. Also, the travel insurance that you would normally purchase to
use in the US cannot be used for temporary insurance (since they'll send you
home if you get sick and it's only good for trips to and from your
province). It's probably not a great idea to go without health insurance ..
you may not get sick, but you might get in an accident of some kind.

Sharon & Mel
Winnipeg & Boston

"eiloo" wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
    > Hello,
    > I will be leaving for the US on my K-1 visa next Thursday and was
    > wondering if any Canadians that have moved had any concerns about
    > travel/health insurance. Since we have provincial health plans, we're
    > covered in the province we live in... However, when outside of the
    > province, we're on our own.
    > So my question is that are there any recommended companies for
    > temporary/travel insurance? I would be without for about 50 days... I
    > don't have any pre-existing medical conditions. I'm thinking of
    > foregoing it as it may just be an added expense for no reason... but if
    > there is a CHEAP alternative... I wouldn't mind getting it.
    > As I won't be returning to Canada (at least no definitive time period),
    > I would end the coverage on the date I get married as I would then be
    > covered under my then wife's policy. Will that be a problem if they
    > knew I was not returning?
    > Thanks,
    > Ian
    > --
    > Posted via http://britishexpats.com

imkimmy

Stantton and I got him a policy from Blue Cross/Blue Shield when he moved down here. It was a month to month policy (only needed 30 days notice to cancell it) and it was about $100/month.

Kimberly

Dennis & Bonnie French

Hello
When I was preparing to leave Ontario last year, I called CAA and was able
to get out of province insurance through them. It didn't matter in the least
that I was not coming back, and I would have been able to re-new it prior to
it expiring if there had been problems with me being covered under Dennis'
work benefits. I seem to recall that for me and my 9 yr old son, it was
around $140C.
Bonnie


"imkimmy" wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
    > Originally posted by eiloo
    > > Hello,
    > >
    > > I will be leaving for the US on my K-1 visa next Thursday and was
    > > wondering if any Canadians that have moved had any concerns about
    > > travel/health insurance. Since we have provincial health plans, we're
    > > covered in the province we live in... However, when outside of the
    > > province, we're on our own.
    > >
    > > So my question is that are there any recommended companies for
    > > temporary/travel insurance? I would be without for about 50 days...
    > > I don't have any pre-existing medical conditions. I'm thinking of
    > > foregoing it as it may just be an added expense for no reason... but
    > > if there is a CHEAP alternative... I wouldn't mind getting it.
    > >
    > > As I won't be returning to Canada (at least no definitive time
    > > period), I would end the coverage on the date I get married as I would
    > > then be covered under my then wife's policy. Will that be a problem
    > > if they knew I was not returning?
    > >
    > > Thanks,
    > > Ian
    > Stantton and I got him a policy from Blue Cross/Blue Shield when he
    > moved down here. It was a month to month policy (only needed 30 days
    > notice to cancell it) and it was about $100/month.
    > Kimberly
    > --
    > Posted via http://britishexpats.com

Rich Wales

"Sharon S." wrote:

> In Manitoba you are covered by Manitoba Health for the
> month that you leave Canada and two months more. Check
> the website for health insurance in your province.

Note, though, that regular Canadian provincial health insurance is
going to be essentially useless if you have medical needs in the US.
You can (and should) assume that they will only pay whatever a given
medical incident would have cost in Canada -- which will be "chicken
feed" compared to US medical costs.

Further, it's quite unlikely that any doctor or hospital in the US
will be willing to accept Canadian health insurance. You will most
likely need to pay the doctor bills yourself, in full, up front --
and then save the receipts and submit them to the provincial plan
yourself in hopes of getting a partial reimbursement -- and then hope
the Canadian insurer doesn't reimburse you via a cheque made out in
C$ drawn on a Canadian bank, which your new bank in the US probably
can't be bothered to do anything with unless you agree to pay them
"collection" fees that could easily exceed the value of the cheque.

Here's our own story -- admittedly not exactly the same as the
subject of this thread, since we were still living in Canada at
the time, but it should still be somewhat relevant.

In 1995, while we were living in Ontario and vacationing in Cali-
fornia, our son came down with chickenpox. (Our daughter had just
caught it and gotten over it, but neither the airline nor our trip
cancellation insurance would allow us to postpone or cancel our
trip because our son hadn't actually developed symptoms yet by the
time we were scheduled to fly.)

Normally, of course, we wouldn't have taken a child to a doctor for
chickenpox. But in order for us to be able to reschedule our return
flight, we had to have a doctor in California see our son and call
the airline's doctors to confirm that he really did have chickenpox.

We had to pay the walk-in clinic up front (about US$60) with a
credit card. The clinic refused to bill either OHIP or the travel
insurance we had through my employer; they would only have accepted
a handful of major California health insurers, and Great-West (one
of the biggest insurance companies in Canada) might as well have
been from Mars as far as they knew or cared.

When we finally returned home to Ontario, I first had to submit the
California doctor's bill to OHIP, which (after a few weeks) sent me
a cheque for about C$20. I then submitted my claim to my employer's
insurance, which eventually got around to paying us the remainder
(or the equivalent thereof in C$).

The employer-supplied insurance, BTW, wouldn't even look at our
claim until after OHIP had processed it. I did eventually get
fully reimbursed, but only because of the supplementary insurance
from my job.

Rich Wales [email protected] http://www.richw.org/dualcit/
*DISCLAIMER: I am not a lawyer, professional immigration consultant,
or consular officer. My comments are for discussion purposes only and
are not intended to be relied upon as legal or professional advice.

Alex

Rich Wales wrote:
    > "Sharon S." wrote:
    >
    > > In Manitoba you are covered by Manitoba Health for the
    > > month that you leave Canada and two months more. Check
    > > the website for health insurance in your province.
    >
    > Note, though, that regular Canadian provincial health insurance is
    > going to be essentially useless if you have medical needs in the US.
    > You can (and should) assume that they will only pay whatever a given
    > medical incident would have cost in Canada -- which will be "chicken
    > feed" compared to US medical costs.
    >
    > Further, it's quite unlikely that any doctor or hospital in the US
    > will be willing to accept Canadian health insurance. You will most
    > likely need to pay the doctor bills yourself, in full, up front --
    > and then save the receipts and submit them to the provincial plan
    > yourself in hopes of getting a partial reimbursement -- and then hope
    > the Canadian insurer doesn't reimburse you via a cheque made out in
    > C$ drawn on a Canadian bank, which your new bank in the US probably
    > can't be bothered to do anything with unless you agree to pay them
    > "collection" fees that could easily exceed the value of the cheque.

Yes you have to pay up front first and then send in for reimbursement.
And yes it is not the full amount you paid but it is better then
nothing. This is based on Alberta Health Care 5 yrs ago.

Banks take Canadian checks (at least the ones I have used - Wells Fargo
and US Bank) and they discount them for the exchange rate - no other
fees required. I also still have my Canadian bank account and an ATM
card - my disability still goes there and I use the card to withdraw the
funds or sometimes I write checks and deposit them in my US account. I
just write US beside the amount and my bank in Canada (TD Canada Trust)
converts it to Canadian - still no special fee). Our (my wife is also
on the account) checks have my US address on them and the statements
come here no problem.

Alexj