Illness, accidents, injuries, disabilities, and aging are some situations anyone can avoid in this world. However, it’s your responsibility to protect yourself and your family’s health as much as possible using an efficient protection plan. This can be a challenging and confusing process, especially with several different plans available.
All you need is to understand your options when it comes to choosing a protection plan for you and your family. This guide contains everything you need to know about different protection methods and how you and your family can benefit from them. Please read on.
The Health Care System
The Canadian health care system covers almost all essential care which includes primary care hospital services, specialists, and physicians. Luckily, you’ll still be eligible for healthcare if you’re a student, unemployed, a pensioner, or disabled. However, depending on your province, some situations are not covered by the system. The main situations not covered include vision, dental care, drugs prescription, cosmetic surgery and other forms of elective surgery. You’ll get to enjoy pharmaceutical benefits if you’re a low-income earner, disabled, or elderly.
Non-Citizens and Public Health Insurance
According to the Canada Health Act, all insured persons – lawful residents who have been living in the province for three months and have lived there for a minimum of 183 days a year – are entitled to all the insured benefits provided in the respective province. If you’re a Canadian citizen or a permanent resident, you’ll be eligible for public health insurance which allows you to enjoy coverage for a variety of medical issues.
However, if you’re new in the country, you may not enjoy such benefits. Your level of coverage will depend on the status of your immigration. You’ll, therefore, be required to pay for your insurance or the treatments – which can be very costly. While free emergency medical services are normally offered by provinces and territories, some restrictions may apply for newcomers.
Extended/Private Health Plans
While the government health plans could give you access to basic medical services, it will be important to also have private insurance to cover for things not fully covered by the government plan. These extended plans will cover costs for your dental care, prescription medication ambulance services, physiotherapy, and prescription eyeglasses.
The different private plans, such as this plan, from private insurance providers, will be vital to protecting you and your family in a situation where the government plan cannot be able to ensure you. If you’re employed in some business, you might be lucky to get extra coverage from the respective organization. You’ll get to enjoy incentives such as dental care and vision. The following are different plans that you can consider paying for.
Personal Health Insurance
Expenses for medical bills and preventive care following an accident or serious illness not covered by the government plan could be burdening on your finances. In the government plan, and depending on your province or territory, you may need to pay for practitioners such as physiotherapists to help with injury recovery or promote wellness, pay for prescription drugs to help treat a serious or chronic health condition, and medical equipment to assist with your mobility. These are what you’ll benefit from with the personal insurance plan.
You should consider paying for this plan if you’re not receiving benefits from your employer, losing your group coverage, or would like to have additional benefits not offered by your province’s health plan or your employer’s plan. However, you’ll be required to have a provincial health plan before applying for personal health insurance. There are different plans with different levels of coverage that you can choose to pay for depending on what best suits your individual and family needs.
Critical Illness Insurance
You or a family member could suffer from a life-altering illness for one reason or another. Receiving treatment for such illness – heart disease, stroke, and cancer – is, no doubt, going to cost you a lot. Without a proper insurance plan, you may not be able to pay for the treatment without compromising on other essential needs. However, critical illness insurance will come in handy should you or a member of your family suffer from such illness.
If you fall ill with a critical illness you took a cover for and survive the waiting period, you’ll be eligible for a good amount of money which you’ll not be restricted on its expenditure unlike with reimbursed health insurance. There are different plans available that you’ll have to choose from depending on your individual and family needs. You can decide to take critical illness insurance if you’re interested in;
- Bringing in extra help both for you and your family.
- Reducing debt and related financial concepts as you undergo treatment.
- Considering new medications not covered by the government and private insurance plans.
- Replacing any lost or reduced income for you and your partner who, perhaps, leaves their work to take care for you.
Long Term Care Insurance
The ability to perform our daily duties could be there today and gone tomorrow because of different reasons. For this reason, taking your future health care needs serious could be what you need now in order to be prepared should you experience such problems sooner or later. Aging, accidents, and illness are some of the main reasons for loss of this ability to perform different tasks without being assisted by others. With this plan, you’ll not be restricted in the ways you’ll spend the finance. Once it’s in your account, you can choose what to do with it with your family. What’s more? This type can also protect your retirement plans. This insurance will be ideal for you if;
- You’re interested in protecting your legacy and wealth that could be eroded by the cost of care.
- You’re in need of financial resources to ensure that you get the type and level of care that you feel it’s right for you should you lose the ability to perform your normal duties effectively at some point in your future.
- You’re worried your retirement income might not last you a significant amount of time should your health deteriorates and the public health care plans will be unable to meet your individual and family needs.
Conclusion
While you can easily benefit from provincial health care (unless you’re a non-citizen), the plans may not be able to cover you in some situations. Dental care, vision, drugs prescription, and cosmetic surgery are some of the exceptions of public plans. In such instances where public plans will be unable to help you, there are different private plans, as explained above, that you can pay for and you and your family can enjoy full benefits. However, you’ll need to be very keen when choosing your health insurance as it is a very sensitive decision to make. The plan that you’ll choose should best suit your individual and family health needs. Good luck!
