Health Insurance after applying inland spousal sponsorship + OWP

[Fruityfull22]

Hello all,

I would like someone to advise me on this matter.

After sending an inland application to being sponsored by spouse with an open work permit you can stay in canada.
I called RAMQ and explained my situation and they told me i cannot have insurance with them untill my applications get accepted or i receive Certificat de selection du quebec.

Waiting to get accepted can take up to a year or longer right, meanwhile i am pregnant and the doctor who i have been paying myself (but i have no money left) told me the kidneys of my baby are too small and i immediately need health insurance or a temporary number to get help for my unborn baby.

When i asked ramq they told me i cannot have a temporary number when i dont have a card?

Also, im advised not to leave canada, meanwhile i can not get health insurance? Other than the fact that im pregnant and my baby has kidney problems i am also in need of help as my thyroid does not function properly and i need to be guided by a doctor.

I have literally been in tears as the ramq lady told me there is no help for me?

Are they serious? what can i do??


thank you

 

[scylla]

Hopefully someone will correct me if I'm wrong - however I believe the earliest you'll qualify for RAMQ is once the Open Work Permit is granted (which will hopefully be 4 months after your application was submitted).

When was your application received by CIC? I assume you included an OWP application?

 

[Ponga]

In looking through your previous posts, it appears that you may have submitted your Inland application a couple of weeks ago.
Is that correct?

Did you also include the OWP? If so, you could see it ~end of July (based on the estimated 4 months that CIC has been reporting for the pilot program OWP, which you would qualify for).

Depending on how far along you are in your pregnancy, you might have no choice but to return to your home country to deliver your baby, if you can get health coverage there. IMHO, this should obviously be your paramount concern (even over your sponsorship application).

Since the baby's father is a Canadian citizen (as you've mentioned in one of your earlier posts), depending on how he obtained his citizenship, your baby may also have Canadian citizenship as well, no matter where the birth takes place.

Good luck!

 

[Fruityfull22]

The woman on the phone for ramq said that even with OWP i cannot get healthcare? She said Only if your application gets accepted or u get certificat du selection du quebec. Going back to holland is not an option due to many reasons.

So basically, i can stay here, but not get healthcare?

My baby has a canadian father by birth, my babys kidneys are too small and he needs immediate help. how can there be no help?

 

[rhcohen2014]

i read somewhere on here that quebec offers free healthcare for pregnant women. i am not sure if this is true, or only in montreal? i believe the information was on the province/city website. are there no free clinics around you who can help you?

 

[Fruityfull22]

i read somewhere on here that quebec offers free healthcare for pregnant women. i am not sure if this is true, or only in montreal? i believe the information was on the province/city website. are there no free clinics around you who can help you?

I asked many people who i called in montreal, they said its free when you have insurance.

No i found a few ones like maison blue but they were all full for the month august in which my baby should be born.

 

[rhcohen2014]

I asked many people who i called in montreal, they said its free when you have insurance.

No i found a few ones like maison blue but they were all full for the month august in which my baby should be born.

obviously healthcare is free when you are insured, that is the point for universal healthcare. what i am talking about is free services for those who do not have healthcare yet. someone mentioned a while ago about some free service for non-insured expecting mothers. have you checked the provincial/city website? it's quite possible the people you are talking to aren't familiar with this program as not being eligible for insurance is not a common thing normally.

 

[Fruityfull22]

obviously healthcare is free when you are insured, that is the point for universal healthcare. what i am talking about is free services for those who do not have healthcare yet. someone mentioned a while ago about some free service for non-insured expecting mothers. have you checked the provincial/city website? it's quite possible the people you are talking to aren't familiar with this program as not being eligible for insurance is not a common thing normally.

I read it just like you on this forum but i have no idea how to find any information on that but i tried! seems too good to be true!

 

[rhcohen2014]

I read it just like you on this forum but i have no idea how to find any information on that but i tried! seems too good to be true!

have you tried calling a settlement agency to see if they have recommendations?

 

[Fruityfull22]

have you tried calling a settlement agency to see if they have recommendations?

Yes...and i just spoke to a guy at ramq again and he said this: He said this: You must send in application sponsorship along with Open work permit, After 3 months when you receive acceptance for permanent residency and selection du quebec certificat
you call ramq and they open your file, it takes 3 months to get a card but in the meantime they cover for pregnant women and birth will be covered.

He also spoke about private insurance..i called bluecross and they said its only possible the first 30 days of being in canada with them. And ive been here since august 2014...

 

[Ponga]

Unfortunately, if you did just recently submit your Inland application...there's no possible way that you're going to reach first stage approval (AIP) before your baby is due. Based on the current processing times, you're looking at Mid-Summer of 2016, unless CIC finds a way to drastically speed up the process.

This is tragic and I sincerely hope that you somehow find the coverage that you both need ASAP.

Good luck!

 

[Fruityfull22]

Unfortunately, if you did just recently submit your Inland application...there's no possible way that you're going to reach first stage approval (AIP) before your baby is due. Based on the current processing times, you're looking at Mid-Summer of 2016, unless CIC finds a way to drastically speed up the process.

This is tragic and I sincerely hope that you somehow find the coverage that you both need ASAP.

Good luck!

So the guy at ramq just lied to me or....??? confused

 

[rhcohen2014]

Yes...and i just spoke to a guy at ramq again and he said this: He said this: You must send in application sponsorship along with Open work permit, After 3 months when you receive acceptance for permanent residency and selection du quebec certificat
you call ramq and they open your file, it takes 3 months to get a card but in the meantime they cover for pregnant women and birth will be covered.

He also spoke about private insurance..i called bluecross and they said its only possible the first 30 days of being in canada with them. And ive been here since august 2014...

by settlement agency, i don't mean RAMQ. a settlement agency is usually a non profit organization that helps newcomers with settlement issues. in ottawa, the agency is called OCISO (ottawa community immigrant service organization). I'd imagine Montreal would have something similiar as it is a large city that newcomers settle in. Also, if you have a religious affiliation, there may be organizations that also offer this type of support in the your area. For example, for jewish people, we would go to the local jewish service agency and they would refer us to the appropriate agencies in the area for the help we are seeking. There are also centers just to help women newcomers. I would suggest googling "settlement agency montreal" or "women settlement organization montreal" to see what pops up in your area.

 

[Rob_TO]

I would try to apply for RAMQ after getting your OWP that you hopefully submitted with your inland app. RAMQ covers foreign workers. The pilot program might be so new, that the customer service reps for RAMQ might not even be aware of the OWP being offered so early in the process now. If they offer coverage to foreign workers with a work permit then I don't see why they wouldn't cover you with an OWP. However you just have no way of knowing when the OWP will be received as it could be anywhere around 4 months from submitting the app.

In Ontario, OHIP offers coverage based on just having the OWP. And they are one of the more strict provinces for healthcare.

 

[Ponga]

So the guy at ramq just lied to me or....??? confused

I don't know, but if he said that you need to be approved to apply for PR (meaning you have stage 1 approval), you won't have that anytime soon.

I agree with Rob_TO; they may not understand how the pilot program OWP works, so hopefully when you do have the OWP, it will give you the opportunity to get the coverage.

The irony is that the pilot OWP is simply based upon an Inland application being received by CIC. There are no other qualifications, aside form having legal status, so...how can that OWP have any [real] bearing on rules for health coverage?

Technically, a person could submit an Inland application, knowing full well that they will not qualify for PR, but would still get the `automatic' OWP lonnnnng before (like ~ 16 months before) the Inland application has even been processed by CIC.

Crazy.