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Canada is among the world’s most sought-after destinations: the Rockies, Montreal, Vancouver, the Maritimes, the Far North. Before you pack, one question deserves an honest answer: does your medical coverage actually work in Canada?
For most foreign visitors, the answer is no, or not enough. Canada’s health system does not cover tourists, visiting families, super visa holders or newcomers awaiting provincial coverage. Each service is billed at its real cost, and those costs are high.
Canada’s health system is public, but it is not universal for everyone. Free access is reserved for Canadian citizens and permanent residents holding a valid provincial health card. For anyone outside that category, health facilities issue a bill at the uninsured rate.
These rates vary by province, but they give a concrete idea of the financial exposure. At the CHU de Québec, the published rates for people not insured by RAMQ are as follows:
On top of this come doctors’ fees, medical imaging, lab tests and medication, billed separately. A fracture requiring surgery followed by five days in hospital can easily exceed $40,000 in a Canadian hospital.
If you are planning an interprovincial trip as a Canadian resident, the coverage stakes are different but real: our guide on RAMQ and travel outside Quebec details what your provincial plan covers (and does not) in other provinces.
Many visitors leave assuming their national insurance or supplemental plan protects them abroad. That assumption is often partly wrong, and sometimes entirely wrong in Canada.
Several national plans reimburse care abroad, but only based on the rates in effect in the home country. Reimbursement for a night in intensive care calculated on the rates of a European or Asian health system bears no relation to a Canadian hospital bill. The difference is entirely on the patient.
Before you leave, three checks are essential with your usual insurer:
Several premium credit cards include travel medical insurance, including some Canadian and international cards. This coverage is useful for short stays, but it comes with conditions that often surprise travellers.
The most frequent restrictions:
Our comparison of the best credit cards for travel insurance details which cards offer the strongest coverage and under what conditions they activate. To weigh these cards against dedicated visitor insurance, see our soNomad versus credit card insurance breakdown.
The super visa is a special permit that lets parents and grandparents of Canadian citizens or permanent residents stay in Canada up to five years per visit, renewable. It is a popular option for families with part of the household established in Canada.
To obtain this visa, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) requires proof of private medical insurance meeting the following criteria:
Since January 2025, IRCC allows buying a policy from a foreign insurer provided it is recognized by OSFI. This change broadens the available options, but the $100,000 minimum remains unchanged.
This $100,000 threshold is a legal minimum. Given the real hospitalization rates in Canada, higher coverage, from $150,000 to $300,000, offers a much more comfortable safety margin for a stay of several months.
Some common situations surprise visitors, because they seem harmless but generate large bills.
Icy sidewalks, snowfall and winter road conditions cause fractures and head injuries every year among visitors unaccustomed to Canadian conditions. A wrist fracture treated with day surgery exceeds $5,000 before fees. If the fracture is complex and requires a night in hospital, the bill doubles.
Severe allergic reaction, asthma attack, an infection requiring intravenous antibiotics, serious food poisoning: these situations frequently lead to the emergency room, sometimes to a short hospitalization. A night in standard care costs $5,775. Two nights are enough to reach $12,000, before the care itself.
A patient who is stabilized but too fragile to travel in economy class may need a medical flight to their home country. The cost of a repatriation from Canada to Europe or Asia frequently exceeds $50,000, depending on distance and the patient’s condition. Without explicit coverage in the policy, this item is entirely out of pocket.
Hiking in the Rockies, skiing at Whistler, kayaking in British Columbia: Canada draws visitors for its wide-open spaces. Yet these activities are among the first to be excluded or made conditional in standard insurance policies. If your policy excludes high-risk activities without defining them precisely, declare your planned activities at purchase and ask for written confirmation.
Here are the protections to confirm before entering Canada:
To compare the available options and choose based on your profile, our guide on how to choose and save on travel insurance asks the right questions.
soNomad is an insurance platform dedicated to travellers in Canada, with a line designed specifically for foreign visitors: tourists, super visa holders, international students, International Experience Canada (IEC) permit holders and temporary workers.
soNomad’s visitors-to-Canada coverage includes emergency medical and hospital care, repatriation, and flexible coverage amounts from $25,000 to $300,000. soNomad’s super visa policy meets IRCC’s minimum requirements ($100,000, one-year validity) and can be purchased online in minutes.
For coverage details, deductible options and rates by age and length of stay, see our full overview of soNomad for visitors to Canada.
soNomad customer service: 1-855-360-7225, Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
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