Do I Need Travel Insurance When Travelling Within Canada?

Emergency medical insurance is a must-have for any out-of-province travel, even if you’re still in Canada.

In general, if you are travelling outside of your home province or territory and you don’t have supplemental travel insurance and you are faced with with a medical emergency, the following costs may not be covered:

• Treatment provided by a health-care practitioner, such as a physician assistant, nurse practitioner, chiropractor or physical therapist
• Prescription drugs
• Medical supplies
• Ambulance services, by ground or air
• Dental emergencies

Fees can range from several hundred to several thousand dollars.

Say you’re visiting Toronto from Winnipeg and you take a tumble down a flight of concrete steps. You’re taken by ambulance to the nearest local hospital and it’s discovered you fractured your femur. The ambulance ride alone will cost you. According to the Ontario Ministry of Health, visitors to Ontario who require ambulance services will have their costs fully covered only if:

• You are a visitor to Ontario from another province, and
• You are insured under your province’s health care plan, and
• A physician deems your ambulance service medically necessary, and
• You are transported between and Ontario hospital and a hospital in another province, or between two Ontario hospitals, and
• Your trip is for diagnostic or therapeutic services, and
• You are returned to the hospital of origin within 24 hours.

In all other cases you will have to pay a land ambulance service co-payment charge of $240. And if you need to be transported by air ambulance, you’ll be billed the actual cost. According to figures of Canadian hospital rates from August 2019 provided by Vancouver-based David Cummings Insurance Services, an air ambulance by helicopter in B.C. costs $2,746 per hour.

Most Canadian provinces and territories have reciprocal agreements with each other, except for Quebec, which means that if you are visiting Ontario from Nova Scotia and you need to visit the emergency department, the Ontario physician will bill their own provincial health care plan for insured services. The only exception is Quebec, where you’ll need to pay the health provider up front.

If you are required to pay out of pocket, you can typically submit a medical expense claim to your own GHIP when you return home. Keep in mind there may be a variation in billing rates between provinces and you could be on the hook for any difference.

Travel Health Insurance Canada / India to Canada