Health Care
From Immipedia
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Health Care
All Canadian citizens and permanent residents are eligible for health insurance in Canada. Canada’s health insurance system is set up to respond to people’s need for health care, not their ability to pay for it. Healthcare in Canada is often known as medicare, the system is designed to make sure that all residents of Canada have reasonable access to health care from doctors and hospitals.
Canada’s health care program is comprised of provincial and territorial health insurance plans, all of which share certain common features and standards.
Where do I get Health Care?
- British Columbia
- Alberta
- Saskatchewan
- Manitoba
- Ontario
- Quebec
- New Brunswick
- Nova Scotia
- Prince Edward Island
- Newfoundland and Labrador
- Yukon
- Northwest Territories
- Nunavut
General health care information is available via the CIC website.
Note that dental is not covered by Canadian health care.
Temporary Residents
Details to follow.
Newly Arriving Permanent Residents
Details to follow.
Inland Applicants for Permanent Residence
Alberta
As long as you have legal status in Alberta (visitor, work, or study permit), you can get Alberta Health Care by showing your marriage certificate and proof of legal status. Health coverage will expire when your legal status ends. Implied status by sending your work permit in with your PR application does not give you access to health care in Alberta. You must be able to prove your legal status, so you must send in extensions of your visitor status to maintain your health care coverage while waiting for PR.
British Columbia
Ontario
Ontario usually makes inland applicants for Permanent Residence wait until Approval In Principle before allowing them to enroll for OHIP coverage. However, the OHIP website actually states the following: http://www.health.gov.on.ca/english/public/pub/ohip/eligibility.html
"You are eligible for the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) if you are included under one of the following categories : ...
- you have submitted an Application for Permanent Residence or an Application for Landing and have been confirmed by Citizenship and Immigration Canada as having satisfied the medical requirements for landing"
This is confirmed by the regulations:
http://www.e-laws.gov.on.ca:81/ISYSquery/frame/IHT8847.c#1.1(1)
" 1.1 (1) For the purposes of the Act, "resident" means an individual, ...
(b) who is ordinarily resident in Ontario and who is one of the following: ...
4. A person who has submitted an application for landing under the Immigration Act (Canada), who has not yet been granted landing and who has been confirmed by the federal Department of Citizenship and Immigration as having satisfied the medical requirements for landing."
So, there is no requirement to have yet reached Approval In Principle. You do, however, have to show that you have passed the immigration medical. Within Canada, you can request a copy of your immigration medical results under the Privacy Act, for free, by writing to:
ATIP Coordinator, Medical Services Branch Canadian Building 219 Laurier Avenue West, 3rd Floor Ottawa, Ontario K1A 1L1
