Last modified 01/27/2024

Canadian Health Services

From ancient times, many people feel the need to migrate from places in which they were born and raised to other places where they can have a better living standard, better chances of employment opportunities and personal improvement. At present times, the migratory wave has been directed toward the countries that learned how to overcome the economic crisis that affected the whole world recently, and one of them is Canada.

The Canadian nation has a vast territory and has one of the highest levels of life standards around the globe, which includes an excellent public health service and top education.

If we talk about the public health system in Canada (called Medicare), we can say that is completely free and it is covered by the government through income taxes. In this health system, every citizen born in Canada can attend free of charge, as well as those who have the Canadian citizenship, regardless of class or preferences for their wages. Also, people who have the Canadian residence can join this health care system.

Although the health system is public, the vast majority of hospitals are run by nonprofit entities and services are provided by individuals.

It is common for all workers to choose to link to private health insurance, although they already have the public system, to access to better benefits and ensure specialized care, which is not covered by the public system. This is because hospitals only treat medical consultations and give priority to the most basic urges.

One of the great advantages offered by the public health system in Canada is the possibility of receiving medical care even while being abroad, although there are some restrictions.

Canada is divided into large provinces, each of which has its own public health system, which is funded by the same province. Thus, we can find that there are differences between each health system depending on the province; for example rates, plan coverage and the requirements each person must complete in order to join, elements which vary between provinces. Note that when a person moves out of a province, they must also change their public health insurance.

Speaking of the coverage of public health care plans, you can see that in general the different public health systems cover general medical advice, diagnosis, treatment, hospitalization and surgery costs of those procedures considered essential for the patient’s life. As for the drugs, only a few are covered by the government.

Once you have arrived in Canada you must apply for your health insurance card (known as Health Card) and you can apply for it filling out a form at any hospital or pharmacy. After a while you will receive your card.

Each person that resides in Canada has a number that identifies him or her within the system of social security (Social Insurance Number) with which they can access all types of insurance (accident, unemployment, etc.) If you are a migrant, you must obtain, as a first step, your Immigrant Landing, which takes about 30 days to be processed.

Although the public health care system in Canada is one of the most complete in the world, it is not perfect and has some setbacks, most have to do with the large number of users they have and the fact that private care is first received in hospitals (public), after which it can be referred to specialists (corresponding to the private health care system) which can lead to long delays to be seen by the specialist.

Now that you know more about the health system in Canada, you can get more out of your future residence in that nation.

Image courtesy of “digitalart” / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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