Long Term Snowbird Travel
I have extended health benefits, including travel insurance, from my former employer. Are these benefits good enough for long term snowbird travel, and if not can I “top up” with insurance that will do the job?
Answer: Two recent visitors to this site, Noel and Bob, asked essentially the same question and they were wise in doing so because many of these so called extended plans are not designed for repeated or long term out-of-country travel. What’s worse, is that they don’t clearly define the limitations of their coverage and they can leave the snowbird retiree high and dry should they encounter a serious medical emergency abroad.
In Noel’s case, his employee benefits insurance administrator at Manulife couldn’t give him a satisfactory answer about the extent of his travel insurance benefits: nothing that satisfied him anyway. The administrator just wasn’t a specialist in travel insurance. I’ve heard the same complaint from others. He would have liked to use the plan as a basis for his coverage, topping it up with supplementary single trip insurance as that might have saved him money. He opted instead for buying full service travel insurance created for snowbirds from Day One and left his employee benefits plan for another day. A wise choice. Many employee and pension plans have quite a few limitations, but even if they were extensive enough, if the administrator can’t give you a clearly written contract telling you what is or is not covered, Stay Away.
With Bob, who was a retired provincial civil servant, it was only after several extended trips that he realized his plan covered him for only 40 consecutive days per trip. He didn’t know that. Again, there was no clear detailed explanation of benefits. He too, has now gone to the full-service travel insurance marketplace for coverage from Day One.
That’s not to say you can’t get good “top up” insurance for retiree or civil service pension plans. You can. Some of them are specifically crafted to tie in with these plans so there are no gaps. But you have to be careful. Not all plans interlock. Some do not allow “top ups.” Make sure both your primary and your secondary insurers know your intention and can give you written assurance of the extent of your coverage—nothing less than $1 million, assurance of repatriation to a hospital at home if medically necessary, 24/7 contact numbers, and direct payment to the hospitals and doctors treating you abroad.
If I want to live in mexico can I get medical insurance coverage
If you leave Canada to llive permanently in Mexico you will lose your provincial medicare. You have the option of buying into Mexico’s medical social security system–which you can find easily on line, but that will not cover you out of the country or if you go back to Canada or the US for a visit. There are also international expatriate health insurance plans for people living out of their country of nationality, but most are renewable on a year by year basis and there are some pre-existing conditions requirements. Try doing some research among the insurers we have right on these pages. Some of them offer expatriate plans.
Milan
February 16, 2011
I read an article on the front page of yesterdays’s issue of the Yuma Sun which indicatede that Canadians spending six months in the USA cannot leave their province to visit anywhere else in Canada for the remainder of that year.
The article was written by Mara Knaub and she quoted a Canadian by the name of Rose Boser from Alberta as giving this information to people at a recent CSA MEETING at the Yuma Civic Center.
I don’t believe this to be true!! Please explain what you know about this subject.
Donna:
There is some truth in what was reported, but I won’t go beyond that because I haven’t seen the article. Here are the facts: In order to remain eligible for your provincial health coverage you are required to be “physically present” in your home province for a secified amount of time during the year–in most provinces that is six months plus a day (183 days). The exceptions are Ontario, which allows you to be out of province for seven months, and Newfoundland eight. It is immaterial whether that time is spent out of the country (like the U.S.) or another province. Thus, if you spend 180 days in the U.S. during the year, you are technically left only two days to spend in some other province. I say “techically” because who really knows when you go from province to province unless you really stay out for long periods of time. Quebec allows you to spend additional time out if you keep your trips to less than 21 days as it doesn’t count those short trips against the time spent out of province. The time you spend out of province is counted cumulatively–add up the total number of days you have spent out of the province over the year on all of your trips and you have your number. This does not have to be consecutive days. The major point here is how can this be enforced since there are no border police or customs or immigration officials at provincial crossing points. On crossing into the U.S. and back, however, there are ways to track you, so you must be more careful to stick within the limits and don’t abuse the privilege. I will be having much more to say on this subject over the coming weeks on this site so stay tuned. Better yet, sign up for the free mail subscription and you will automatically be alerted when such news becomes available.
Milan
With the Medoc Base 40 day plan to top up the PSHCP (covered by Sun Life) how long would I have to
be back home before I can take another 40 trip? It states you can take any number of
40 day trips a year but indicate a time limit between trips. Say I wanted to go to the east coast for a
month stay, return home by 40 days and then take a trip west returning by the 40 day limit.
Barbara:
Most multi-trip plans, such as yours, require you to be back in your home province for one day before beginning another trip. But I would look at the fine print to see if this is different.
Milan