Semi-Urgent Healthcare

[Sloth5]

Hi there,

I'm from the UK and I recently gained my Canadian citizenship through my father. I have been visiting the US for the past couple of months and in a couple of days I will travel to Canada where the plan was to settle and find employment. However in the past week I was admitted to the ER. I think I went to a pretty shoddy hospital as there was very little diagnosis and I left when the pain had slowed. This week I have been getting pretty sick again and I feel I really need to see a specialist soon. I understand that there's no free healthcare for the first 3 months of settlement in Canada (I will be staying in Ontario). I'm also worried that any private healthcare will reject me because this problem is pre-existing. My last resort will be heading back to the UK for treatment but I really want to avoid that at all costs because I simply do not have the funding right now.

If anyone has any ideas I would appreciate it a lot as I'm worrying a lot about this. Thank you!

 

[scylla]

You will have to wait three months after you arrive in Ontario before you can qualify for OHIP. During this waiting period, your options are to either pay for care out of your own pocket or obtain private insurance. You're right in assuming it will be more difficult and costly to obtain insurance for a pre-exisiting condition. The premiums will most likely be quite a bit higher - and you should expect there will be a cap on the amount of the coverage - or a high deductible. The only way to find out for certain is to contact your insurer to ask.

There are provinces in Canada that don't have a three month wait time for insurance - however you would have to have plans to remain in that province for 6-8 months after you use their health care system. If you simply use their health care system and then relocate to Ontario soon afterwards, the province will come after you for more than the costs of the services you used for abusing the health care system.

 

[Steevy]

Just to add up to what scylla suggested, since you are uninsured for the first approximately 90 days in ON by OHIP, and you have a pre-existing condition that apparently has not been stable for the last 4-6 months or more depending on your condition, then no private insurance for New Immigrants (generally, people without provincial health coverage) will cover the needed treatment at all.

Your best shot is to either pay out of pocket at the hospital/clinic or wait until you receive OHIP, if it is an option you can consider. In any case, it is much better to be treated in Canada than the US considering the price range.

Hope it somewhat clarifies it