Health Insurance in Canada

Amazon
blinded!!

Go to company page Amazon

blinded!!
Oct 5, 2020 17 Comments

So what is the current healthcare scenario in Canada? I plan to move to Canada sometime in next year but am told there is long wait for treatment even for emergencies and urgent needs like a fracture etc. Is private insurance and care available easily if needed? Any helpful canadians out here on blind?

17

comments

Want to comment? LOG IN or SIGN UP
  1. TOP
  2. RECENT
  3. OLD
 TOP 17 Comments
  • Move
    the-seeker

    Go to company page Move

    the-seeker
    My 2 cents:
    I've been in Canada for 8 years now (Tech), as student, on work permit, then now PR. I've lived both on east coast and west coast. Here is my personal opinion:
    _________________
    Positives/Neutral:
    0 - It is all residency based, irrespective of your immigration status. So everyone gets the same treatment.

    1- GP/Walk-ins: You can get walk-in the same day at many clinics and see a doctor (General Practitioner). Nowadays with Telehealth same day or edition next few hours appointments are also available.

    2- Blood Tests: Same day blood tests available.

    3- 811 - 24 hours nurse available to help you on phone.

    4- Emergency: If it's something urgent, you can go to emergency. The wait time depends on severity of your case and can be up to 3 hours. There are websites which shows live wait times of various hospitals. - You can find wait times for many scenarios in Ontario province here: https://www.hqontario.ca/System-Performance/. Also live wait times for hospitals in Greater Vancouver here: http://www.edwaittimes.ca/WaitTimes.aspx. You might notice that towns with more senior population has longer average wait times.

    When you go there, they ask about your reason as the registration. If you really have emergency, I suggest calling for ambulance 911. The ambulance cost is very less than US. I think it's 60 to 80 CAD. I'm forgetting exact numbers. But the good part is that if it's really an emergency, they'll cater to it in the ambulance and you'll also skip the line at Hospital. They directly take you inside from my personal experience. Your work insurance covers Ambulance bit if you don't have one, it's worth the price still. In emergency, they have specialist as well. I've been in an accident (no fatal injury), and ambulance fire came in 5 minutes. Ambulance directly took to the nearest hospital emergency, and we didn't have to wait at all in emergency. I've also had to wait for over 3 hours for non-fatal ones.

    5- Medicine: In Ontario, till 25 years of age or so, even your medicines and prescription are covered.

    6- You don't have to think about what's covered or not. I've heard from friends in US, sometimes there a hospital admission is covered but a doctor at the hospital is not and weird things like that. Here is pretty straightforward and most of the basics are covered include hospital stay, GP, scans, tests and scans etc.

    7- Birth: During the whole pregnancy, a GP, Obgyn sees you regularly. It's all covered, all tests are covered. Hospital birth and all drugs etc are covered by public plan. Only thing I remember paying for during 3-day hospital stay is for private room about 120 CAD in total. (To be honest it was 200 CAD per day but work insurance covered 80%).
    ___________________
    Cons:
    1- Dental: It's not covered yet but some provinces are in talks to cover basic Dental in the province free medical plan.

    2- Specialist appointment: Although GPs are available to see you the same day but getting an appointment with a specialist requires a GP prescription. After that it can be a wait of few weeks to months depending on severity and availability.

    3- Ultrasound etc. - Although free but can take upto few weeks or usually a month or 2 to get. In my experience it's best to check in at different scanning places. They have different wait times. I've been able to get most ultrasound appointments within a month time though (touch wood). Once due to emergency, I was able to get an appointment the next day at the hospital where I went for the emergency (Again priority/severity based system comes into picture). But I've heard from other colleagues that their MRI appointment took months.

    4- Surgery: Depending on severity of your case, if it's a non-fatal surgery it might not be preferred over other severe cases and could be delayed.

    6- Major: One of my acquaintance is going through cancer treatment. He has a rare one and has been happy with the care and treatment. He has some insurance support from work too (money wise), which might be helping. Again like with other scenario, if in your situation, you are dealing with life/death urgency, you'll be catered on priority over others.

    _________
    Also assuming you are moving with Amazon, you'll have a pretty good private health insurance. (Mind you for the first 3 months you don't get the coverage from the company or the government usually, so you need to buy travel insurance or local private health insurance. You can compare rates here: https://www.visitorsinsurance.ca/#/. Manulife is usually good.)
    Oct 5, 2020 10
    • Nokia / Data
      huio

      Go to company page Nokia Data

       huio
      Regarding chest pain, I will give my experience...I had a chest pain so I had to go to emergency .chest pain considered as emergent category. During triage at the hospital,staff decide which category you fall into. Based on that they take you in. Chest pain is in category 2 of seriousness on the scale where 1 most serious a like cardiac arrest etc..
      They took me in. One nurse assigned to me,she started taking blood,ECG etc. Doc came in after 15-20mins who was basically waiting for blood report. Fortunately it was acid reflux not the attack. So on safe side he ordered chest x-ray . From then waiting begins, as soon as they know you are not in danger,they will deprioritize you and will keep you waiting. I got my chest x-ray done in next 1 hr. Then I waited for next 1 hr for doc follow up. 1hr more wait for discharge. So basically that's how it works.
      They could have discharged me in 2 hrs so that emergency bed could have been used for someone else. But I was there almost 6 hrs.
      System is not fully efficient but it's working when it's needed definitely for emergency.
      Oct 7, 2020
    • Amazon
      robbStark8

      Go to company page Amazon

      robbStark8
      What’s the cost of private insurance for senior citizens, say above the age of 75?
      Oct 11, 2020
  • My understanding is exactly as you say. Canadian (and European) Healthcare are exactly this way. You can wait in the long lines for critical treatment you need.

    There is a reason Canadians are coming across the boarder to America to get drugs they need.
    Oct 5, 2020 3
  • Heard really bad things about Canada’s health care system. Brutally long wait times, weak, uneducated doctors etc. Yeah, might be „free“ but a headache, too
    Oct 5, 2020 0
  • Intuit
    cgST

    Go to company page Intuit

    cgST
    https://www.npr.org/2020/10/19/925354134/frame-canada
    Oct 24, 2020 0