Travel Insurance

saskskier

saskskier

Active member
This is (mostly) for the Canadians, but I'm sure it's a reminder for everyone. I'm a social worker and recently started working at a major hospital in Calgary. A big part of my job is repatriating patients back to their home province/city (ie - hospital to hospital transfers after a major injury).

Long story short, provincial health insurance (your health card/number) does NOT cover medical repatriation. If you're from Alberta get in a major car accident or avalanche or whatever in BC and it requires a lengthy hospital stay/rehab (ie - spinal cord injury), they will send you back to Alberta once you're medically stable. And it's pricey...

For example:

Calgary to Vancouver - $12000

Calgary to Toronto - $43000

Calgary to Halifax - $50000

I honestly had no idea this was an issue for Canadians and assumed something like medical transportation between provinces would be covered, but it's not. Hopefully no one here ends up in a situation where they need to use travel insurance, but it's bad if you don't have it and figured it would be something worth passing along.
 
Healthcare still an issue in the "1st world" in 2023. Yeee

That said somebody would toss you in the back of a uhaul for 300 bucks plus the rental and gas prolly. Yolo
 
I had to get travel insurance when I went to Canada last summer because my healthcare with the VA doesn't work there. I bought a week long plan. Thank goodness I didn't need to use it!
 
Like, your provincial health insurance will cover your hospital stay, meds and any procedures (surgeries, pins/plates/ortho stuff, etc) you get in another province, but won't pay for long term rehab in another province and won't pay for transportation back to your home province.

I've seen some hospital bills for patients who don't have valid provincial insurance (ie - moved to Alberta years ago, but didn't get a new health card, travelled from the US w/o travel insurance, etc) and it's pretty insane. One patient was in the ICU for about a month and then in a rehab unit for a couple of months and their bill was a little over $200k. Patient was homeless and unemployed and zero chance the bill will ever get paid. Good times... ha ha.
 
just dealt/ helped out 3 Canadian with a hurt buddy, one of the first convos was" we tried to get him to buy travel insurance but...."

gonna be ugly when mom's gets the bill
 
14499681:maaattt said:
Op I take it you're in Saskatchewan, how close is skiing to Regina
Click to expand...

Grew up there, but live in Calgary now. There is a small ski hill (Mission Ridge) about 45 minutes from Regina.
 
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