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Question for those who have travelled to Canada..


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Greetings all,

 

Anticipating a visit to Canada this summer to visit family. It was strongly suggested that I get a "medical insurance policy" to cover me while I visit, as apparently Canada doesn't accept US insurance, and trying to get reimbursed upon return is a gamble.

 

I have looked online and found numerous companies, but have no idea how legit any of them are. Found some that are very strict with regard to preexisting conditions, even being uninsured because of needing to take a prescription medication related to a condition.

 

Anyone familiar with getting insurance? Done it? Plan to stay a month or so and don't want to risk going without but don't want to get scammed either.

 

Thanks for any thoughts.

Ya just can't RV without a hitch.....!

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I would suggest that you contact the agent you use for your present insurance if you have one, as they should be able to guide you if not to sell you a policy. If you don't have an agent, you might try one of the Escapee Commercial members.

Good travelin !...............Kirk

Full-time 11+ years...... Now seasonal travelers.
Kirk & Pam's Great RV Adventure

            images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQqFswi_bvvojaMvanTWAI

 

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For folks that are not full timers, I highly recommend MedJet Assist. If you get hurt or sick, anywhere you might be traveling, they will get you home. I'm not sure if they will get your RV home but for motorcycle riders they will get your motorcycle home. I surprised we don't see more mention of these times of medical evacuation services in the RV community.

RoyB

South of Boston

2021 Dodge 2500 - 6.4L

Forest River 19RR Toy Hauler

Roofnest Falcon Rooftop Tent

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If you're on Medicare and have a Plan F or G Medigap policy, you have coverage for $50k of emergency expenses out of the US (after a deductible). You will have to pay and get reimbursed.

 

If you aren't yet on Medicare, call your insurance company before simply assuming that you won't be covered. Sure, you will have to pay out of pocket and get reimbursed but that's not the same as not having coverage.

 

Don't confuse any of the "transportation services" such as MedJet Assist, SkyMed, or MASA with health insurance companies. They don't pay for your care, just transporting you to where there is an appropriate level of care. Be careful and read the fine print, most of them try to make it sound as if they will repatriate you to the US when, in fact, all they promise to do is take you to where an adequate level of care is available.

Sandie & Joel

2000 40' Beaver Patriot Thunder Princeton--425 HP/1550 ft-lbs CAT C-12
2014 Honda CR-V AWD EX-L with ReadyBrute tow bar/brake system
WiFiRanger Ambassador
Follow our adventures on Facebook at Weiss Travels

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  • 2 months later...

If you haven't taken your trip to Canada or bought insurance yet, this may help.

 

I just attended a pretty low key presentation by SkyMed. The rep said that if one of their members requires hospitalization and can be stabilized for an air ambulance flight, they will take the member and spouse back home from anywhere in Canada (and elsewhere in North America) and they pay for the transport. She said that medical necessity is not required for their service. There is also no requirement for approval from doctors or insurance administrators. All the member has to do is ask for it. Their service includes transport by ambulance, helicopter, and jet. She was very specific in the presentation about taking the members home, not just to the nearest adequate medical facility. I don't know how this works for fulltimers who don't actually have a fixed home location. I guess they would just pick a place where they have good healthcare coverage or where they have family or maybe they can just say their home is near a specific hospital like the Mayo Clinic.

 

The SkyMed rep also said that any pre-existing conditions do not apply after the first 90 days of membership. She said that transport for hospitalization caused by something unrelated to a pre-existing condition is covered immediately.

 

So if you have medical insurance coverage in the USA, this could greatly reduce your costs by bringing you from Canada where you have little or no health insurance coverage to your home hospital where you probably have pretty good coverage.

 

You can check them out for yourself at skymed.com. I'd be curious to know what you think about them. I haven't bought from them yet but I'm leaning that way. So please post what you find out.

 

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We are going to Canada this year and I called our secondary insurance since Medicare doesn't cover Canada(there is one exception I think). Our secondary said no problem, we will get full coverage while in Canada. Secondary is Aetna but the answer probably depends on your plan.

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We are going to Canada this year and I called our secondary insurance since Medicare doesn't cover Canada(there is one exception I think). Our secondary said no problem, we will get full coverage while in Canada. Secondary is Aetna but the answer probably depends on your plan.

 

The answer has nothing to do with who your insurance carrier is, but, rather which Medigap plan you have. And if you have a standard Medigap plan you do NOT get full coverage, you get 80% coverage up to a lifetime maximum of $50,000

 

The following is copied from the Medicare website:

 

Standard Medigap Plans C, D, F, G, M, and N provide foreign travel emergency health care coverage when you travel outside the U.S.

Plans E, H, I, and J are no longer for sale, but if you bought one before June 1, 2010 you may keep it. All of these plans also provide foreign travel emergency health care coverage when you travel outside the U.S.

Medigap Plans C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, M, and N pay 80% of the billed charges for certain medically necessary emergency care outside the U.S. after you meet a $250 deductible for the year. These Medigap policies cover foreign travel emergency care if it begins during the first 60 days of your trip, and if Medicare doesn't otherwise cover the care.

Foreign travel emergency coverage with Medigap policies has a lifetime limit of $50,000.

Sandie & Joel

2000 40' Beaver Patriot Thunder Princeton--425 HP/1550 ft-lbs CAT C-12
2014 Honda CR-V AWD EX-L with ReadyBrute tow bar/brake system
WiFiRanger Ambassador
Follow our adventures on Facebook at Weiss Travels

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If you have a Medigap plan yes I agree. Not everyone has a Medigap plan. We have a plan supplied by the company we retired from and essentially, when we go to Canada, it becomes the standard plan supplied to everyone in the company. Most of our neighbors and friends have retired from a major company and have company supplied plans, not the Medigap plan. I have no idea how many people actually have Medigap plans vs. company supplied plans.

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Most of our neighbors and friends have retired from a major company and have company supplied plans, not the Medigap plan. I have no idea how many people actually have Medigap plans vs. company supplied plans.

 

We used to have a company-provided plan until the company decided it could save money by switching us all to Medigap plans. This was not an isolated case over the past decade. No offense, but I suspect that you and your friends are in the minority in having company-provided plans rather than standard Medicare Medigap and Advantage plans. Company-provided retiree medical benefits were entirely phased out by quite a few companies 10-15 years ago and many more recent retirees lack them even if they are lucky enough to get a pension.

 

For the benefit of the majority of the readers of this forum, I try to base my responses on Medicare and its standard supplements because they are available to the largest number of users. I rarely mention my own company-provided benefits unless there is some reason to do so. You, of course, to do as you wish.

Sandie & Joel

2000 40' Beaver Patriot Thunder Princeton--425 HP/1550 ft-lbs CAT C-12
2014 Honda CR-V AWD EX-L with ReadyBrute tow bar/brake system
WiFiRanger Ambassador
Follow our adventures on Facebook at Weiss Travels

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I just received an offer from Good Sams that supposedly covers emergencies while traveling. Transport home, etc. Anyone familiar with that plan?

 

I don't know what you received in the mail, but the standard Good Same membership includes the following:

 

There's a limit to how far your healthcare plans will cover you while travelling. Once you cross the Canada/US border, it's up to you to arrange and pay for emergency medical care. Good Sam can help. Your membership includes travel medical protection on an unlimited number of 2-day trips to Canada if you're American and to the US if you're Canadian.

 

Since two day trip coverage is useless to us, I don't even consider it a benefit. Maybe what you're reading is something else.

Sandie & Joel

2000 40' Beaver Patriot Thunder Princeton--425 HP/1550 ft-lbs CAT C-12
2014 Honda CR-V AWD EX-L with ReadyBrute tow bar/brake system
WiFiRanger Ambassador
Follow our adventures on Facebook at Weiss Travels

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We used to have a company-provided plan until the company decided it could save money by switching us all to Medigap plans. This was not an isolated case over the past decade. No offense, but I suspect that you and your friends are in the minority in having company-provided plans rather than standard Medicare Medigap and Advantage plans. Company-provided retiree medical benefits were entirely phased out by quite a few companies 10-15 years ago and many more recent retirees lack them even if they are lucky enough to get a pension.

Your employer may have dropped their Medicare supplement program from their retiree health care plan 10-15 years ago, but we (at 3M) and many other major corporations had such plans up to the passage of the "Affordable Care Act" went into force and were penalized them out of existence by the results of that law, as ours was. I suppose it really doesn't matter now as I'm sure that you are correct about the lack of them today.

Good travelin !...............Kirk

Full-time 11+ years...... Now seasonal travelers.
Kirk & Pam's Great RV Adventure

            images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQqFswi_bvvojaMvanTWAI

 

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