Canada Health Insurance

Canada health insurance is largely dominated by provincial healthcare services, with private healthcare serving as supplemental cover.

The Canada Health Act, 1984, requires all provinces to provide basic health insurance cover to all citizens. Universal healthcare, termed as ‘Medicare’ in Canada, offers cover for dental check ups, physician visits, hospitalization expenses and cost of prescribed pharmaceuticals. Medical expenses that are not covered under the public healthcare policy have to be borne by the individual.

Canada Health Insurance: Private Healthcare

Canadians buy supplemental health insurance plans from private insurance providers. Supplemental health insurance provides coverage against medical expenses and diseases that are not covered under the governmental plan.

There are two types of Canada health insurance plans available in the market:

Group and small business plan: business owners buy health insurance plans for their employees in order to provide extended coverage. A group plan can include medical care, dental care, life and disability insurance for all employees. Some group policies may also include employees’ families under the cover. Group insurance plans offer various benefits, such as lower premiums, wide coverage, hassle free acquisition, writing off premiums as business expenses and tax savings. Also, it generates positive feelings and trust among employees towards the company.

Personal plan: If you are not covered under a group insurance plan, then it is essential to buy a personal Canada health insurance policy. Depending upon the type of insurance policy and deductibles, you can get 40 to 80 percent cover on healthcare.

Canada Health Insurance: Extent of Cover

A basic supplemental Canada health insurance plan provides following coverage:

Healthcare: which includes

Ambulance

Private ward hospitalization expenses

Speech therapist

Nursing and homecare

Hearing aid

Psychologist services

Dental: which includes

Filings, polishing, extractions and cleaning

Regular visits to a dentist

Vision: which includes

Expenses for buying prescription lenses

Optician fees

Laser eye surgery

Travel health insurance: Maximum of one million dollars worth of travel health insurance for 8 to 10 days trips.

However, these covers are not standard for every Canada health insurance policy and they differ among insurance companies. One can compare the coverage of different insurance plans against the policy price to buy the best policy.