Travelling to the U.S. from Canada: Health Insurance

October 26, 2014 3:35 PM

My Canadian relatives often travel to the U.S. to see me, and they have become increasingly concerned about their health insurance coverage, to the point where they are considering not making any future visits. They do buy Blue Cross, but they say that it won't cover pre-existing conditions. Is this true? What happens if one of them falls ill while they are here with something pre-existing? Any Canadians with personal experience getting sick while out of the country?
posted by nanook to Health & Fitness (6 answers total)

It's good that your parents are considering this - many Canadians believe they are covered in the USA under the Canadian health care system, which is true, but often not useful for USA-sized medical bills..

Blue Cross does limit pre-existing conditions, although the details of the limitation are highly dependent on the specifics of the policy and the specifics of the condition. You would need to know more information about their policy/condition to answer that question.

In case their Blue Cross policy does not cover them, there are a variety of travel insurance providers in Canada that do cover pre-existing conditions. I have no recommendations, although a quick Google search will provide you with some options.

It is somewhat common for private health care insurance in Canada to cover out-of-country medical care, so you may want to look into that.
posted by saeculorum at 3:46 PM on October 26, 2014

That is what travel insurance is for (amongst other things).
posted by GeeEmm at 5:33 PM on October 26, 2014 [3 favorites]

My Ontario-resident mother, visiting Florida about 10 years ago, thought she was having a heart attack and went to the emergency room, where various tests were done and I believe she stayed overnight. In Canada she would've paid nothing; she says that in Florida she was charged more than 20K. (It's possible that's an exaggeration though -- if you're Canadian you probably know that one of the ways we bond is by swapping stories about how bad the American healthcare system is.) She had travel insurance that ended up covering everything.

The issue is that when Canadians need healthcare outside Canada, the Canadian healthcare system will cover what it considers to be the reasonable, standard costs. (What it would cost in Canada.) That's fine in many countries, but in the United States the costs are much higher than elsewhere in the world, and the Canadian healthcare system doesn't cover the entire thing, leaving what can be a really big gap for the person to pay themselves. My understanding is that your relatives are right, and that in the same way that Americans are sometimes bankrupted by healthcare costs, a Canadian travelling in the United States could be too. GeeEmm is right: this is what travel health insurance is for.
posted by Susan PG at 6:02 PM on October 26, 2014 [1 favorite]

she says that in Florida she was charged more than 20K. (It's possible that's an exaggeration though..

That's absolutely NOT an exaggeration.
posted by cnc at 6:30 PM on October 26, 2014 [1 favorite]

she says that in Florida she was charged more than 20K. (It's possible that's an exaggeration though..

Yeah that actually sounds kinda low to me, but I guess it was 10 years ago.

You need travel insurance that includes medical coverage and medical evacuation.
posted by Jacqueline at 7:38 PM on October 26, 2014 [1 favorite]

I just clicked through on the travel medical insurance options offered by my credit card (I have a Vancity Enviro Visa). There is an option to elect for coverage of pre-existing conditions up to $150k max. The options are out there, just have to dig them up.

I do not use this coverage since I have secondary insurance through work and travel medical insurance is provided.
posted by crazycanuck at 2:12 PM on October 27, 2014