TRAVEL NEWS | Ontario's changed laws towards out of country travel insurance
As of January 1st 2020, Ontario’s plan to eliminate basic out-of-country travel insurance will take effect. Reason being, the program is very costly and does not provide value to taxpayers.
The discontinuation of the province’s health plan, Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) covers out-of-country inpatient services to a maximum of $400 per day for a higher level of care, and up to $50 per day for emergency outpatient services and doctor services.
The decision to scrapthe program was motivated by the high administration costs the government spent, approximately $2.8 million annually to administer approximately $9 million in claim payments through the program every year. Once the health plan is dropped, the provincial government will continue to only cover $210 per treatment for kidney dialysis patients abroad. Treatments in the US typically cost up to $750 a day.
“We know that is not good value for Ontarians,” Elliott said. “People should be making their own plans to obtain coverage, which can be obtained quite inexpensively and provide them with full compensation if they sustain any health problems while out of the country.”
Since announcing this, there has been a broader approach reminding travelers to purchase health insurance before they leave the country. “I think many people didn’t even know there was any level of coverage before,” she said. “But it is important and we will have a public campaign to advise people because we don’t want people to have that unfortunate shock if they have a health problem while out of country, to have those costs which can be quite extraordinarily high.”
“Some Canadians may still be under the false impression that their provincial health plan will cover most or all of their out-of-country medical expenses. However, prior to the upcoming changes in policy, OHIP had only provided reimbursement for roughly 5% of out-of-country medical expenses,” Dan Keon, vice-president of market management at Allianz Global Assistance Canada said in a previous statement.
The Ontario Government says, “Every Ontarian deserves the opportunity to safely travel abroad. That’s why Ontario’s government is launching a new program to fund out-of-country dialysis services, ensuring that Ontarians living with kidney failure can continue to have access to the care they need when they are travelling outside of Canada.”
It goes on to say that as of January 1st 2020, the new program operated by Ontario Renal Network will provide patients reimbursement rates currently provided through existing programs. This will coincide with the discontinuance of the out of country travels program.
Ontarians travelling abroad are encouraged to purchase the appropriate travel insurance coverage in the event emergency health care is needed out of country. Most Ontarians already have travel health insurance through their workplace plans or credit cards.
This does not apply if traveling with Canada and the Territories. For more information please visit the link here
Happy Traveling,
The Luxe and Lavish Travels Team