Blue Cross Visitors to Canada Insurance

Blue Cross Visitors to Canada insurance pays for emergency medical care for someone staying in Canada without a public health insurance plan: visiting parents, super visa applicants, foreign workers and students, and newcomers waiting for their public health insurance plan. Protecto sells this plan and looks after it once you’ve bought it: extensions, cancellations and refunds. You get your price online in under 2 minutes.

What the plan covers

You choose the amount per person: $50,000, $100,000 or $150,000 (the last one for ages 74 and under). A deductible is optional.

For an emergency caused by an accident or illness, the plan pays for, among other things:

• Hospital and doctor: semi-private room, physician fees, lab tests and X-rays.
• Medications prescribed by the treating physician, except those required for the continuous stabilization of a chronic medical condition.
• Health professionals: physiotherapist, chiropractor, osteopath, podiatrist or chiropodist, up to $400 per profession, when the care is approved by Blue Cross Travel Assistance.
• Dental care: up to $2,000 per accident for natural and healthy teeth damaged by external trauma, and up to $300 per trip for any other emergency dental treatment (root canals excluded).
• Transport: ambulance or taxi to the nearest suitable medical facility, and transfers between hospitals when the treating physician and Blue Cross Travel Assistance determine that the available facilities are inadequate.
• Medical repatriation to your home country, when Blue Cross Travel Assistance authorizes it.
• Subsistence allowance: $150 a day, up to $1,500, if the insurer determines that you must postpone your return because of an illness or accident.
• Death: return of remains up to $10,000, or cremation or burial on site up to $4,000.

Blue Cross Travel Assistance answers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Side trips: a trip outside Canada during the stay can be covered if it starts and ends in Canada, takes place entirely within the contract period, lasts 30 days or less and isn’t to your country of permanent residence. Beyond 30 days, coverage is suspended from day 31 until the return to Canada. In total, side trips can’t exceed 49% of the length of the contract, or the contract is void.

Who can buy it

Anyone aged 31 days to 79 at the time of purchase who isn’t covered by a public health plan and is:

• a visitor to Canada;
• a super visa applicant or holder;
• a foreign worker with a work permit;
• an international student with a study permit;
• an immigrant or permanent resident waiting for a public health insurance plan;
• a Canadian citizen returning after a long absence.

Some situations make a person ineligible, for example: medical advice not to travel, kidney disease treated with dialysis, heart failure, cancer (other than basal cell carcinoma) diagnosed, treated or medicated in the last 12 months, or home oxygen in the last 24 months. Your advisor can check these points with you before you buy.

When to buy: before arrival, or within 30 days

The contract is bought before arriving in Canada or within 30 days after. It can also take over from similar insurance in Canada held with another insurance company, before it ends or no later than 30 days after.

If bought within 30 days after arrival, or within 30 days after such insurance ends, the contract has a 3-day waiting period: an accident is covered, an illness is not. If bought while that other insurance is in force, it takes effect the day after it ends. The simplest move is to buy before the flight.

Super visa

The plan is offered to super visa applicants and holders. For IRCC’s requirements, read super visa insurance requirements. For the full process, see our super visa insurance page.

Pre-existing medical conditions

This is the clause to read before buying for a parent. A condition is “stable” if it has remained unchanged during the set period: no new diagnosis, no new, worsening or more frequent symptom, no hospitalization, no new medication or dosage change, no new treatment or test pending, prescribed, ongoing or recommended, no treatment changed or stopped, and no treatment or medical advice ignored.

• Ages 54 and under: a condition that wasn’t stable in the 3 months before coverage starts is excluded, as is a heart condition for which nitroglycerin was taken during that period.
• Ages 55 to 79: the same rule applies over 6 months.
• At any age: three categories of conditions are targeted: cardiovascular (angina, heart attack, heart rhythm disorders, bypass surgery, among others), neurological (stroke, TIA) and pulmonary (COPD, emphysema, chronic bronchitis, among others). The whole category is excluded if, for one of its conditions, the person has ever undergone a procedure, seen a physician, been diagnosed, treated or hospitalized, received a prescription or taken a medication, or been advised by a physician to get treatment, undergo tests, take medication or undergo a procedure.

For a parent with a heart history, that last point is the one to check. To understand stability, read what “stable” means in travel insurance.

What the plan doesn’t cover

Exclusions include: pregnancy, childbirth and their complications; high-risk sports or activities; alcohol or drug abuse; suicide and self-inflicted injury; illegal acts; acts of war and civil unrest. Non-urgent, experimental or optional treatment isn’t covered either. Finally, if your health allows, you must call Blue Cross Travel Assistance before going to a hospital or clinic, or the claim may be refused.

How the price is set

The premium depends on four things: the age of each insured person, the length of the stay, the coverage amount chosen and the deductible, if any. The exact price is the one calculated for your profile. For ballpark figures, read how much visitor insurance costs in Canada and which deductible to choose.

Cancelling, extending, leaving early

• Cancelling: with a refund, before the contract start date, or after it, within 10 days of purchase, unless a claim has been or will be submitted, or the contract lasts 10 days or less. A $25 administrative fee is deducted from the refund.
• Leaving earlier than planned: if no claim has been or will be submitted, you can ask for a refund of unused days, less $25. No refund is granted if the person is repatriated at the insurer’s expense.
• Extension: request it before the contract’s end date. It is subject to Blue Cross approval.
• Trip break: the insured person can go home and come back to Canada without the contract ending. No coverage applies during the days spent in their home country, and those days are not refunded. On return, a condition that is not stable is excluded for the rest of the contract.

At Protecto, these requests go through your advisor.

Buying through Protecto, and claims

1. Get your price online in under 2 minutes.
2. One of our advisors may call to check eligibility and health conditions. They call to help, never to push.
3. You receive the certificate of insurance.

In an emergency, the insured person first calls Blue Cross Travel Assistance at the number on the certificate. Assistance coordinates payment when possible. The claim form goes in within 90 days of the event, and Blue Cross makes its decision within 30 business days of receiving all the documents. Claims are filed directly online, on the website of CanAssistance, the company mandated by Blue Cross, or by mail. Contact details are on our Claims and assistance page. If you have trouble reaching them, our advisors can help.

Other visitor plans at Protecto

Blue Cross insures people aged 31 days to 79 at the time of purchase. See also the visitor insurance plans for Canada available at Protecto and all our insurers.

Protecto is a firm registered with the AMF (#602624) and licensed in Ontario (FSRAO 41378M), rated 4.9 out of 5 by more than 800 clients on Google. This summary doesn’t replace the policy: if there’s a difference, the Blue Cross policy wording prevails.