Health Insurance for Alaskan Cruise - Question for Cnds.

[freckledcat]

We purchased cancellation insurance for our upcoming cruise in July but I am on the fence about health insurance.

 

My benefits cover travel as does my husbands, but is it worth it to get extra? I'd imagine if anything were to happen, it would be relatively easy to get back into Canada and if not, will OHIP reimburse any costs?

 

TIA

[rochelle_s]

I think this would depend greatly on exactly what type of coverage you have with your benefits.

 

Another option....you might want to check with your credit card company to see what they offer. I know that Bank of Montreal has a really good policy for $99.00 per year which covers A LOT, such as cancellation for any reason, medical, medical evacuation, loss of baggage, trip delay etc. This price is for your family and not per person...another bonus!

 

Hope this helps...

 

Rochelle

[Atomica]

Double check with both your insurance provider & credit card company to see exactly what they cover and don't cover (and up to what dollar amount). Then you can make the decision to get more if needed.

 

I have a comprehensive travel medical plan through my work, so the only thing I purchase is trip cancellation insurance. However, I didn't know my medical plan was better than what was on offer until I sat down and actually read all the conditions and clauses.

[hammybee]

I lifted this from the OHIP website:When I travel outside of Canada will OHIP pay the same medical expenses that are covered in Ontario?No. If you are a resident of Ontario and you are insured under OHIP, you are entitled to very limited funding for a limited range of medical services when you are travelling outside of Canada. For this reason, you are strongly advised to purchase additional health insurance every time you leave Canada.

[Roz]

Does your insurance cover medical evacuation?

 

Roz

[Ephraim]

We purchased cancellation insurance for our upcoming cruise in July but I am on the fence about health insurance.

 

My benefits cover travel as does my husbands, but is it worth it to get extra? I'd imagine if anything were to happen, it would be relatively easy to get back into Canada and if not, will OHIP reimburse any costs?

 

TIA

 

Personally, I won't travel outside of Canada without travel insurance. You can get a number of good quotes on Kinetix. Most of the insurance branches of the banks offer travel insurance as well. And you can get a number of coverages on certain CC. One of the cheapest that I have found is Bank of Montreal's annual coverage on the MasterCard since it includes cancellation insurance if you buy using their CC. But otherwise, the annual policy that I have purchased on Kinetix was the cheapest.

 

We had to see the doctor on a ship once. That was $500. Luckily our insurance reimbursed us and collected from RAMQ (Quebec Medicaire).

 

Insurance will also pay the costs to medivac you. And incidentally, when in another province, you will likely have to pay immediately and only be reinbursed the normal fees, as it says...

 

The Régie de l'assurance maladie issues reimbursements for professional services at amounts not exceeding Québec rates, even if the insured person paid more.

 

Hospitals generally fall under the interprovincial agreement, but again, the same basic rules apply as at home with what is covered (ie wards and not private rooms, etc.)

 

What is not covered generally is:

 

 

• services rendered by a health professional other than a doctor, a dentist or an optometrist;
  
• the cost of a private or semi-private hospital room;
  
• emergency transportation, by ground or air;
  
• the cost of bringing a person back to Québec;
  

 

In other words... medivac, ambulance, etc.

[TCF]

Insurance is really complicated and there are no quick 'n easy answers....you have to read the fine print!!

We separate the insurance coverages. On policy for trip cancellation re-embersement....the other for out-of-province medical. The first one is easy...RBC has a reasonably priced policy that pretty much covers all eventualities. The medical coverage is more complicated.

We live in BC so our experience may be very different than other province.

BC Medical will pay ONLY what is on its PAYMENT SCHEDULE. So if you pay $300 for an office visit on the ship...you'll get $75CDN back!!!

The real problem is being hospitalized in a US hospital where rates are triple what we pay here...and way higher if you have a calamatous event...read heart attack....that requires a lot of specialized care. Also repatriation by air ambulance....which they will agree to do sometimes if treatment is long term...can cost you your house!

We have out-of-province insurance on our VISA card that covers all this stuff with a $1million limit which is good for us. But....we paid for this coverage for years before we finally got wise and read the policy that came with our cards...DUH!!!! So check what you may already have....or what may be available for not a lot of money through your credit card.

But...no matter what you do....do not leave Canada without adequate medical insurance. We are so accustomed to not paying directly for our medical care that we often don't even give this a second thought when we travel.

[kenish]

I will start by saying I know very little about the Canadian health insurance and medical system.

 

Healthcare in the US is *very* expensive. A visit to the ER for a simple problem like a broken bone or asthma attack can cost US$5000 and that is for a "walk in" who is not admitted to the hospital. A short ambulance ride can cost $1000 and a helo evac $7500. There is a lot of pressure to get maximum revenue from assets like helicopters and MRI scanners and it often leads to helivacs and tests that are unnecessary or questionable for the situation but further hikes up the bill.

 

A non-financial reason to consider medical insurance- by US law, anyone showing up at the emergency room must be taken care of. Many hospital ERs (especially in large cities) get overloaded with people unable to pay who go to the ER for the flu. If you go to the ER for something that is not life-threatening you could have to wait many hours. Proof of insurance really greases the skids in getting attended to quickly.

 

I hope it's never an issue but larger towns have "urgent care" clinics that are far less expensive than the hospital ER. They can handle routine illnesses, sprains, stitches, etc. If you need help, ask a local if there are alternatives to the hospital ER.

 

Hope that helps!

[sapper1]

Our provincial Medicare will cover daily costs in the states up to the daily cost applicable in New Brunswick, which is considerably less than the cost in the American private system. You are on your own for the difference if you don't have good out of the country coverage.

The OP is going to Alaska and mentioned that she could always slip back into Canada to a hospital. Hospitals are few and far between in the wilderness areas of northern British Columbia and the Yukon. Also, if you are in intensive care with a heart attack or have had a serious accident it is pretty hard to slip anyplace.

I spent three days in a Florida hospital a few years ago in just an ordinary room with a few medical tests thrown in and the bill came to over 13,000 US at a time when the exchange rate was 60%. The whole bill was covered by our insurance, which in turn, billed Medicare for the pittance of the bill that they covered.

It is not worth risking your financial future to go to the US without adequate medical coverage. It is an absolute no brainer.

[sun~]

As others have said, it is truly worth it to get the medical coverage while outside Canada.

 

OHIP (and other provincial plans) will only cover limited things out of the country.

 

Huge example of why it is so important (I have posted this before BTW) on my MIL & FIL recent 35 day Statendam trip, my MIL fell and broker her hip on the last day of the cruise. She was medically evacuated via a private plane with one or two medical attendants (my MIL is fairly elderly 78). They took her from San Diego directly to Victoria BC. Apparently the cost would have been in the $20,000 range for that service. She had surgery on her hip, where they put in pins. From what I gather, they evacuated her to BC because even with the private plane it was a much cheaper way to treat her. The nurse on staff on the Statendam apparently was a star in getting their paperwork organized.

 

This is not the first time this has happened to my MIL, once she broker her knee in Hawaii in the surf and had to fly back with a cast.

 

The lesson learned is that you never know when you are going to need the insurance, and it is better to be prepared.

 

I know my FIL gets the yearly coverage from CAA, as it is horrendously expensive when you get past a certain age or have medical conditions. However, that being said, who knows how much the surgery and recovery would have cost my in laws if they had stayed in California.

 

I always check out insure my trip . com to get quotes and compare policies. I know my DH has coverage, but we always get more, just to be on the safe side.

[freckledcat]

Thanks for all the imput!

 

We are going to call our benefits companies this week to see how extensive their coverage is, then we will contact our bank to see what they have as additional.

 

Thanks again.

[Juanita462]

We have $2500 each coverage with Visa Gold preferred for trip cancellation insurance.

 

we top that up with RBC regular insurance.

 

For medical we use RBC enhanced which is reasonably priced.

 

We had medical bills from our last cruise and BC provincial plan

only paid $26 of the $75 doctor's fee and nothing for the medication costs which we had to recover from our extended plan.

 

I question the high cost of insurance when you consider that the first cost is recovered from the Province, then comes your extended care and the third payee is the travel insurance - so they would only pay 20% of the cost since most plans pay 80% - if allowed of course.

I once posed that question to a TA and she never answered.

 

another thing to consider is that there is a lifetime limit to extended health coverage and a serious medical emergency could wipe out most of that. Now, if we pay for extra insurance, why do we have to access our lifetime amount in extended health to pay for expenses from a medical emergency - they ask right on the form for your extended health - I wonder if this is mandatory - what does our extended coverage have to do with a private insurance company?

[vancouverpacific]

We travel often both out of province and to the US. BC Medical as mentioned earlier will only cover costs as per their schedule of payment. For example they will reimburse a cpl of hundred dollars for a hospital room while you are charged thousands. They will not cover costs to evacuate back to BC.

 

We regularly purchase additional coverage from BCAA (auto association) for our entire family at really good rates. It costs us about $150.00 annually for coverage and will make up the shortfall between the BC medical schedule and incurred costs.

 

One additional issue, clarify any existing medical conditions and make sure your additional insurance covers them as well.