Just to make sure we all are talking about the same thing, here’s how a Top-Up Travel Insurance Plan works for any Canadian resident and for Snowbirds in particular:
Your Provincial Emergency Medical coverage typically covers you out of province for up to 60 days usually at no additional cost. After the 60 days you are on your own to find insurance. A policy you’d get that starts after the 60 days is called a “Top-Up Travel Insurance Plan”.
Travel health insurance plans are commonly sold as “Top-Up Travel Insurance Plans”. The drawback is that since you aren’t covering 100% of your trip’s length, you have to use a travel health insurance plan. The reason I’m telling you travel health insurance plans aren’t the best choice is because they usually have a strict definition of what constitutes a pre-existing medical condition. Here’s a typical definition:
A pre-existing condition is defined as any injury, illness, sickness, disease, or other physical, medical, mental or nervous condition, disorder or ailment that, with reasonable medical certainty, existed at the time of application or at any time during the three years prior to the effective date of the insurance, whether or not previously manifested or symptomatic, diagnosed, treated, or disclosed prior to the effective date, including any subsequent, chronic or recurring complications or consequences related thereto or arising therefrom.
If this sounds restrictive, you’re right. If you have no other choice, getting this Travel health insurance plan is far better than having no coverage at all. Go here if you’d like to see this plan.
You have another choice: It’s getting a regular travel insurance plan. This may sound too simple & a waste of money since it will cover you for your entire trip’s length (overlapping the first 60 days with your provincial plan). The fact is that you will get a far better plan at a better price and you can cover stable pre-existing medical conditions without a premium increase. In fact, you won’t have any medical forms to fill out, either.
I hope this makes sense. If you want the right travel insurance advice, call us at 1-888-407-3854 and we'll help you figure it all out.
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