{"id":214603,"date":"2019-05-16T22:03:39","date_gmt":"2019-05-17T02:03:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=214603"},"modified":"2019-05-16T22:03:39","modified_gmt":"2019-05-17T02:03:39","slug":"navigating-canadas-health-care-system-while-you-wait-for-your-health-card","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/05\/16\/navigating-canadas-health-care-system-while-you-wait-for-your-health-card\/","title":{"rendered":"Navigating Canada\u2019s Health-care System While You Wait for Your Health Card"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The typical public health card takes a few months to process. If you\u2019re new to Canada, what can you do if a health issue arises in the meantime? Most provinces require three months residency before health-care coverage becomes active. While most individuals will still be covered in the case of extreme medical emergencies, a visit to the emergency room or walk-in clinic could cost you hundreds or even thousands of dollars. Here\u2019s how to handle the gap period between applying for a public health card and seeing your coverage actually take effect.<\/p>\n

Consider Gap Insurance<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ministry encourages the purchase of private health insurance for new immigrants who must serve a waiting period,\u201d says David Jensen, spokesperson for the Ontario Ministry of Health. \u201cThis insurance will cover you for any urgent health issues that may arise before your provincial coverage takes effect.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re moving with a company, the first step is to find out if they provide coverage for you. When Heidi Nymann-Jensen moved to Canada from Denmark a few years ago, her husband\u2019s company provided insurance that covered any potential health situations from the moment her family landed in Canada. \u201cWe were fortunate,\u201d says Nymann-Jensen. The added coverage from Martin\u2019s company removed any fiscally related health-care worries. \u201cWe simply had to fill out the forms at a Service Ontario office, and wait for our cards, knowing we were covered in the interim,\u201d says Nymann-Jensen.<\/p>\n

For those who aren\u2019t fortunate enough to have company insurance when coming to Canada, personal insurance is an option. \u201cIt can be very costly not to have coverage during those first few months,\u201d says Brigitte Kent, Acting Executive Director of OmbudService for Life and Health Insurance (OLHI), an independent insurance complaint service provider. Ideally you should apply for insurance prior to moving, she says, but if you wait until after arriving in Canada, make finding private insurance a priority in your first few days. If you don\u2019t apply within the first five days of arrival, private insurance may be more difficult to obtain. Some insurance companies may suspect that you have a medical issue and are seeking insurance only to avoid the imminent fees.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re uncertain of where to look for insurance, OLHI works with 99 per cent of Canada\u2019s health insurance companies. They have an\u00a0insurance finder<\/a>\u00a0that lists all member companies. Simply scroll to \u201cexpatriates\u201d for a list of companies that provide interim insurance.<\/p>\n

Get Free Health Advice by Phone<\/p>\n

Every province and territory offers free, confidential services anyone can call and receive free health advice or information. Registered nurses operate the phone lines 24 hours a day, seven days a week. For most provinces and territories, you dial 811 to be connected with a health-care professional; Manitoba has\u00a0Health Links<\/a>, and in Ontario, this system is known as\u00a0TeleHealth<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The purpose of these health lines is not to diagnose illness, and the answering attendant cannot give out prescriptions. What they can do is help you decide if you can handle the problem yourself. For almost half of all calls, nurses are able to provide advice that allows the callers to handle the medical situation at home.<\/p>\n

However, in the other half of cases, the persons calling will still be required to seek medical advice from a doctor or to visit an emergency room.<\/p>\n

Visit a Free Clinic<\/p>\n

If you find yourself in need of care, without insurance, and a health line suggest seeing a doctor, you can seek out community health centres (CHC) located across the country. \u201cOntario has some\u00a0Community Care Health Centres<\/a>\u00a0that provide a variety of health services, often for clients who do not have private insurance or OHIP coverage,\u201d says Jensen.<\/p>\n

The names may vary from province to province, but every CHC strives to offer free health services most needed by their community members via a team of qualified health professionals. While most CHCs accept provincial insurance, they are also an option for those who need it and are waiting for provincial coverage.<\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s universal health-care is a matter of pride for Canadians. For those new to Canada, while there may be a three-month wait for residency before coverage becomes active; there are still health-care options available during this period. If the need arises, seek out programs that are already in place, like free clinics, free health information lines, or plan ahead with gap insurance. And when you see your coverage take effect, you can cross \u201cget health card\u201d off of your settlement to-do list.<\/p>\n

Managing your expenses while settling in can be challenging. But there are ways you can save and make your money work harder. For more advice on how to save more and settle in faster, visit rbc.com\/starttoday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The typical public health card takes a few months to process. If you\u2019re new to Canada, what can you do …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":214604,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-214603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","mauthors-royal-bank-of-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214603"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214603\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":214606,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214603\/revisions\/214606"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}