Insurance

[iancal]

On 5/25/2021 at 11:43 AM, broberts said:

It would be nice if provincial health insurance providers offered travel riders as an added cost option. (I can hear the screams from both ends of the political spectrum. 🙂)

Not so sure.  DW had a short hospital stay in Kuala Lumpur, plus xrays, MRI, and prescription meds.  Came to the grand sum of $850 CAD.

 

We had to submit to Alberta Health before our travel insurer would look at it.   After submission, the first response was that it could take 90 days.   85 days later we got another notification saying that the claim had been resolved.  Three days later a check arrived. For $50.  I suspect that admin cost of that claim far exceeded that $50.

 

And our private travel insurer...Manulife?   Submitted the claim.  It was paid in full, minus the $50, within 15 business days.  Direct deposit.

 

Who would you rather deal with for travel insurance?

Edited May 27, 2021 by iancal

[john2003]

Sounds like it was really a Manulife problem. I have always found the insurer deals with the province directly. Never had to do so, but have had to sign authorization.

I think BC pays something like $25 per day for an out of province hospital stay. You really wonder why they bother but maybe they have to pay something under the Canada Health Act.

[gnome12]

14 minutes ago, john2003 said:

Sounds like it was really a Manulife problem. I have always found the insurer deals with the province directly. Never had to do so, but have had to sign authorization.

I think BC pays something like $25 per day for an out of province hospital stay. You really wonder why they bother but maybe they have to pay something under the Canada Health Act.

I don’t think they have to. Ontario has completely dropped payments for out of province medical. I think the rationale is what you suggest, for the small amount they pay the cost of administration isn’t reasonable. 

[iancal]

We lived in BC for 20 years and suffered with high ICBC premiums.  They dropped in half when we moved out of the Province.

 

The last thing I want is for a Provincial Government to get into the out of country medical/evac business!  Premiums would be comparatively high....and the program losses would also be inevitably high as well.

Edited May 29, 2021 by iancal

[broberts]

25 minutes ago, iancal said:

...

The last thing I want is for a Provincial Government to get into the out of country medical/evac business!  Premiums would be comparatively high....and the program losses would also be inevitably high as well.

 

Do you have any evidence that this is likely to happen?

[lostinparadise999]

58 minutes ago, iancal said:

We lived in BC for 20 years and suffered with high ICBC premiums.  They dropped in half when we moved out of the Province.

 

The last thing I want is for a Provincial Government to get into the out of country medical/evac business!  Premiums would be comparatively high....and the program losses would also be inevitably high as well.

Well we no longer pay BC Medical premiums. Seniors use to pay a reduce premium. The NDP government passed the premiums to the employers. Employers with a payroll of more than $1.5 million in British Columbia will pay a rate of $1.95% on their total payroll. Lower rates apply to employers with lower payrolls. Employers with payroll of less than $500,000 are exempt from paying the Employer Health Tax.  

[iancal]

We do not pay medical premiums in Alberta. 

 

Surprisingly, just prior to turning 65 AHS sent me a Blue Cross card.  Gratis.  I believe it covers about 70 percent of the cost of our prescriptions.  Hard to tell...I have not had any in the past six years, DW only has one, occasionally two and the cost is minimal.

Edited May 29, 2021 by iancal

[TeaBag]

1 hour ago, iancal said:

We do not pay medical premiums in Alberta. 

 

Surprisingly, just prior to turning 65 AHS sent me a Blue Cross card.  Gratis.  I believe it covers about 70 percent of the cost of our prescriptions.  Hard to tell...I have not had any in the past six years, DW only has one, occasionally two and the cost is minimal.

Wow, maybe we should have stayed in Calgary!!

[iancal]

21 hours ago, lostinparadise999 said:

Well we no longer pay BC Medical premiums. Seniors use to pay a reduce premium. The NDP government passed the premiums to the employers. Employers with a payroll of more than $1.5 million in British Columbia will pay a rate of $1.95% on their total payroll. Lower rates apply to employers with lower payrolls. Employers with payroll of less than $500,000 are exempt from paying the Employer Health Tax.  

When we moved from BC I was amazed at the difference in car insurance from our ICBC coverage.  The cost for both cars dropped to exactly half plus $10. over what we had been paying in Vancouver.  Same cars , same coverage, same drivers.

[lostinparadise999]

29 minutes ago, iancal said:

When we moved from BC I was amazed at the difference in car insurance from our ICBC coverage.  The cost for both cars dropped to exactly half plus $10. over what we had been paying in Vancouver.  Same cars , same coverage, same drivers.

We got a lot of bad drivers that don't know STOP means for the car to stop at the sign. They think think it is Step on it. Red light means slow down, amber is go faster and green is go ahead and text your friends. 

When there is only one highway into Vancouver from Nfld there bound to be lots of impatient drivers causing accidents especially at rush hour. Wait there's more...Let it snow, let it snow...total disaster with no snow tires. 

[TeaBag]

1 hour ago, lostinparadise999 said:

We got a lot of bad drivers that don't know STOP means for the car to stop at the sign. They think think it is Step on it. Red light means slow down, amber is go faster and green is go ahead and text your friends. 

When there is only one highway into Vancouver from Nfld there bound to be lots of impatient drivers causing accidents especially at rush hour. Wait there's more...Let it snow, let it snow...total disaster with no snow tires. 

So true.

[Heidi13]

2 hours ago, iancal said:

When we moved from BC I was amazed at the difference in car insurance from our ICBC coverage.  The cost for both cars dropped to exactly half plus $10. over what we had been paying in Vancouver.  Same cars , same coverage, same drivers.

 

So typical of when Govt gets involved in business. Fortunately, we only have to suffer ICBC for basic insurance, as we use private for everything else.

 

They now have a new money grab with named drivers.

[iancal]

Years ago I did business with ICBC in their North Van palace. I can well understand why their rates at that time were so high!

[john2003]

U have to be young and/ or irresponsible and only have one car to benefit in BC. Too bad it didn't have to be that way.

Also remember they have encumbered ICBC with core government expenditures to move them off the books so comparisons to private are skewed.

[iancal]

On 5/31/2021 at 6:07 PM, john2003 said:

U have to be young and/ or irresponsible and only have one car to benefit in BC. Too bad it didn't have to be that way.

Also remember they have encumbered ICBC with core government expenditures to move them off the books so comparisons to private are skewed.

Yes.   We were bad ICBC risks.  Middle age, two cars, married, no accidents, no tickets, no suspensions,  good credit.

 

  Guess that is why we got dinged with such outrageous insurance rates when we lived in BC.

Edited June 3, 2021 by iancal

[Heidi13]

4 hours ago, iancal said:

Yes.   We were bad ICBC risks.  Middle age, two cars, married, no accidents, no tickets, no suspensions,  good credit.

 

  Guess that is why we got dinged with such outrageous insurance rates when we lived in BC.

 

So true. Only the Government could blindly operate an insurance company where higher risk customers are charged the same as low risk. Just another BC tax grab.😒