Moving to BC

[ahsangens]

Dear Altruist
I am posting it on behalf of one of my friends.
He is moving to BC for a soft landing. Will stay for six weeks and then return.
Questions are:
1. What sort of insurance do they need as they have to wait for BC healthcare enrollment?
We have seen some insurance. All insurance says emergency covers only. Wondering what if they need to see a regular doctor? Do they need to pay out of pocket to visit a general physician?
2. Which area got the cheapest rent for staying for a six-week temporary visit?
3. What is the cheapest way to rent a car for six weeks?

 

[Naturgrl]

Dear Altruist
I am posting it on behalf of one of my friends.
He is moving to BC for a soft landing. Will stay for six weeks and then return.
Questions are:
1. What sort of insurance do they need as they have to wait for BC healthcare enrollment?
We have seen some insurance. All insurance says emergency covers only. Wondering what if they need to see a regular doctor? Do they need to pay out of pocket to visit a general physician?
2. Which area got the cheapest rent for staying for a six-week temporary visit?
3. What is the cheapest way to rent a car for six weeks?

1. If doing a soft landing then how are they eligible for BC MSP as they must be a resident of BC with a BC address?

A person must be a B.C. resident to qualify for medical coverage under MSP.

A resident is a person who meets all of the following conditions:

• A citizen of Canada or lawfully admitted to Canada for permanent residence
• Makes their home in B.C.
• Physically present in B.C. at least six months in a calendar year
  • Eligible B.C. residents (citizens of Canada or persons who are lawfully admitted to Canada for permanent residence) who are outside B.C. for vacation purposes only, are allowed a total absence of up to seven months in a calendar year

They can apply for MSP once they are moving permanently. So they need health insurance. If not moving permanently it will be difficult to get a family doctor. People wait years on wait lists for a family doctor. So if they need to see a doctor, they go to a walk in clinic. Whether they pay out of pocket depends on their health insurance coverage.

2. BC is a big province so search on Airbnb or VRBO.
3. Call car rentals and ask about long term rates.

 

[YVR123]

Dear Altruist
I am posting it on behalf of one of my friends.
He is moving to BC for a soft landing. Will stay for six weeks and then return.
Questions are:
1. What sort of insurance do they need as they have to wait for BC healthcare enrollment?
We have seen some insurance. All insurance says emergency covers only. Wondering what if they need to see a regular doctor? Do they need to pay out of pocket to visit a general physician?
2. Which area got the cheapest rent for staying for a six-week temporary visit?
3. What is the cheapest way to rent a car for six weeks?

1. They need private travel health insurnace and that will only cover emergency. If they need to see a regular doctor, they can call and try walk-in clinic. Some of them will take non-resident and you likely need to pay with cash or credit cards.

Agree that they should not apply for MSP when they will be leaving in 6 weeks. If they got it before they leave and use any medical service, they will need to pay it back (if they do not plan to stay long term in BC. The details are on MSP wbesite.)

They won't be able to "rent" any places. They should look into motel/hotel/air B&B or other short term rentals.
They need to shop around for car rentals. No idea.

 

[canuck78]

Dear Altruist
I am posting it on behalf of one of my friends.
He is moving to BC for a soft landing. Will stay for six weeks and then return.
Questions are:
1. What sort of insurance do they need as they have to wait for BC healthcare enrollment?
We have seen some insurance. All insurance says emergency covers only. Wondering what if they need to see a regular doctor? Do they need to pay out of pocket to visit a general physician?
2. Which area got the cheapest rent for staying for a six-week temporary visit?
3. What is the cheapest way to rent a car for six weeks?

They should only be applying for provincial healthcare when they can meet the residency requirements to qualify for healthcare in that province. It requires you to live in the province for 6-12 months in the first year depending on the province and make the province you permanent home plus there are some other requirements. Only apply for health card once you have permanently settled down in a province. If you applying knowing you won’t meet the RO for that province that is consired healthcare fraud.

Emergency policies are mostly available to bring down the cost. If it was more comprehensive coverage the policies would be a lot more expensive. Plan to lay out of pocket for some things. Just like a car accident it is not worth claiming a small amount because on subsequent travels your insurance rate would likely be higher.

 

[ahsangens]

Thanks for your answers.
From the above responses, it is clear that insurance won't cover regular doctor visits. One needs to pay for any regular doctor visits.
Wondering if anyone can refer a reasonable priced comprehensive insurance or alternative way to see doctors if they do not have insurance coverage for seeing a regular doctor.

 

[YVR123]

Thanks for your answers.
From the above responses, it is clear that insurance won't cover regular doctor visits. One needs to pay for any regular doctor visits.
Wondering if anyone can refer a reasonable priced comprehensive insurance or alternative way to see doctors if they do not have insurance coverage for seeing a regular doctor.

No reasonable priced insurnace will allow you to do regular visit to a doctor.
The alternative way is to pay out of your own packet.

 

[Naturgrl]

Thanks for your answers.
From the above responses, it is clear that insurance won't cover regular doctor visits. One needs to pay for any regular doctor visits.
Wondering if anyone can refer a reasonable priced comprehensive insurance or alternative way to see doctors if they do not have insurance coverage for seeing a regular doctor.

Travel/health insurance usually doesn’t cover regular doctor visits. You pay out of pocket. If coming for 6 week, why do they need regular doctor visits? Most doctors will not see you if not a patient. Waiting lists can be years.

 

[steaky]

Thanks for your answers.
From the above responses, it is clear that insurance won't cover regular doctor visits. One needs to pay for any regular doctor visits.
Wondering if anyone can refer a reasonable priced comprehensive insurance or alternative way to see doctors if they do not have insurance coverage for seeing a regular doctor.

Wondering why your friend need 6 weeks for a soft landing. Could be shorten to a day or two. Then no need to pay for any regular doctor visits.

 

[YVR123]

Wondering why your friend need 6 weeks for a soft landing. Could be shorten to a day or two. Then no need to pay for any regular doctor visits.

Agree that 6 weeks is an odd time. It's not long enough to get a PR card and it's too long if they just want to apply for SIN and startup a bank account. They cannot get care card anyway. Most people who does soft landing only stay for a few days.

It's also unusal that the friend almost sounds like he/she for sure needs to see a doctor during that short 6 weeks period.

 

[steaky]

Just like a car accident it is not worth claiming a small amount because on subsequent travels your insurance rate would likely be higher.

Not true in BC. I claimed small amount in auto insurance when falling stones damaged my car windshield, and there is no impact on my insurance rate!

 

[YVR123]

Not true in BC. I claimed small amount in auto insurance when falling stones damaged my car windshield, and there is no impact on my insurance rate!

Fixing windshield is of a different claim ...It's part of comprehensive coverage and won't affect your premium
https://www.icbc.com/insurance/products-coverage/Pages/comprehensive-coverage.aspx

 

[ahsangens]

Dear Member
Thanks for your comments. They want to stay six weeks to spend some time for orientation and summer travelling too.
If the PR car is not ready by 6 Weeks, can they use a friend's address to get it delivered and then organize pick up or post? Or they must be onshore to receive the PR card. Actually, their visa took more than two years. So by this time many of their plans got interrupted. So then need some more time to finally settle.

 

[YVR123]

Dear Member
Thanks for your comments. They want to stay six weeks to spend some time for orientation and summer travelling too.
If the PR car is not ready by 6 Weeks, can they use a friend's address to get it delivered and then organize pick up or post? Or they must be onshore to receive the PR card. Actually, their visa took more than two years. So by this time many of their plans got interrupted. So then need some more time to finally settle.

Time to receive initial PR card varies. (you can check the discussions in the forum.
This is one of them:
https://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/threads/initial-pr-card-not-received-8-months.707151/page-8

possible delay including re-submission of photos.
They can use a friend's address for the PR cards and they can be deliver/post. But some countries do not allow, encourage mailing of IDs.

 

[drkosamia]

Thanks for your answers.
From the above responses, it is clear that insurance won't cover regular doctor visits. One needs to pay for any regular doctor visits.
Wondering if anyone can refer a reasonable priced comprehensive insurance or alternative way to see doctors if they do not have insurance coverage for seeing a regular doctor.

Any reason to worry too much about Medical visits unless one is visiting with pre-condition or elderly people, in any case, do not depend on free healthcare. Wait time is horrendous. Even in case of an emergency, you might have to wait for 2 to 4 hours, and you can not depend on 911 emergencies also. A call for an ambulance might take the same amount of waiting and a recent one of our known elderly relatives get an ambulance after almost one and a half hours to declare her dead only.

 

[canuck78]

Any reason to worry too much about Medical visits unless one is visiting with pre-condition or elderly people, in any case, do not depend on free healthcare. Wait time is horrendous. Even in case of an emergency, you might have to wait for 2 to 4 hours, and you can not depend on 911 emergencies also. A call for an ambulance might take the same amount of waiting and a recent one of our known elderly relatives get an ambulance after almost one and a half hours to declare her dead only.

In most cases you don’t have an option but the provincial system. In most cases you can count on 911 so do use 911 if you have an emergency. The calls are triaged. If the person was deceased they would have low priority. As private payers you have even less priority than those with provincial healthcare so wait times are in general longer or private patients are not accepted in some cases. If it is an emergency everyone is triaged the same. What you determine is an emergency may not actually be a true medical emergency and it takes time to receive things like lab work before treatment can be determined, Those paying with cash tend to go to walk-in clinics or emergency rooms if an emergency although that is a much more expensive option. There are certainly issues with the healthcare system but in cases of true emergency they are actually quite good.