Healthcare Ontario vs Alberta?

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Hopetoretire
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Healthcare Ontario vs Alberta?

Post by Hopetoretire »

Having worked in Calgary and Edmonton for 7 years, I love the Canadian Rockies, Banff, Lake Louise, et al. Considering moving to Alberta on retirement. How would healthcare coverage work, can I buy travel insurance for 3 months while waiting for Alberta health to kick in? Anyone experience the quality of healthcare in Alberta vs Ontario, and which cities? Thinking of Red Deer as a small town sounds appealing ... or not? Thoughts and advice anyone?

Will be leaving some family and friends behind - is this a big consideration do you think? Never been too close to them anyway :?

An afterthought: I quite like the quiet of Estevan in Sask - anyone here live there or know about the area, demographics, healthcare, crime levels?
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kcowan
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Re: Healthcare Ontario vs Alberta?

Post by kcowan »

Having lived in Edmonton for 8 years (which included regular trips to Calgary), I would recommend Canmore. It is the one place where retirees can live because local work is scarce. Outside the Banff Park Gate, you can own outright. In the mountains and a short trip to skiing, mountain hiking and biking. An easy ride into Calgary for shopping and entertainment.

On the queston of health care, I think OHIP will cover your for the 90 days until Alberta coverage kicks in. Whenever we moved provinces, this was the case. To remain flexible, buy a place where satellite coverage is good.
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AltaRed
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Re: Healthcare Ontario vs Alberta?

Post by AltaRed »

kcowan wrote:On the queston of health care, I think OHIP will cover your for the 90 days until Alberta coverage kicks in. Whenever we moved provinces, this was the case. To remain flexible, buy a place where satellite coverage is good.
Indeed, the departing province provides the 90 coverage until the new provinicial coverage kicks in. It did so when we moved from AB to BC 4 years ago. Most? Many? health institutions in the new province will bill the 'old' province automatically to get payment, while others will want you as the middleman paying up front and then recovering the money from the old province. That latter method may be dependent on the 'amount' of coverage for that procedure, e.t. if the 'old' province pays less to the HI then the 'new' province, the HI may not want to give up the difference.
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izzy
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Re: Healthcare Ontario vs Alberta?

Post by izzy »

If I remember correctly (its been four years ) there is a reciprocal arrangement between most of the provinces that allows the provider to claim from their own provincial plan presumably with the plans doing the reconciliation between themselves but Quebec as usual refused to participate and so they insist that the patient pay upfront and claim the Quebec benefit for the procedure back from their plan.
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Re: Healthcare Ontario vs Alberta?

Post by brucecohen »

The Wait Times Alliance is an alliance of medical associations that grades provincial health care systems. Here is its latest report card, for 2015. Note that it's important to read all the fine print behind the grades.
OhGreatGuru
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Re: Healthcare Ontario vs Alberta?

Post by OhGreatGuru »

Read the provincial Health Care web sites (Ontario and Alberta in your case) for details on moving in/out of province. But I think the 90-day overlap is pretty standard under interprovincial portability rules. There may be some administrative differences on how they handle billing during that period. Ordinarily there should be no need to buy travel insurance for an interprovincial move.
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Re: Healthcare Ontario vs Alberta?

Post by SQRT »

We have lived in Canmore since shortly after retirement 10 years ago. Wonderful place but certainly much more expensive than places away from the Rockies. Very active community, biking, skiing, hiking, etc. Health care is comparable to Ontario. Taxes are certainly lower than Ontario but the differential has lessened since Alberta raised rates recently.
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Re: Healthcare Ontario vs Alberta?

Post by SQRT »

izzy wrote:If I remember correctly (its been four years ) there is a reciprocal arrangement between most of the provinces that allows the provider to claim from their own provincial plan presumably with the plans doing the reconciliation between themselves but Quebec as usual refused to participate and so they insist that the patient pay upfront and claim the Quebec benefit for the procedure back from their plan.
Yes, this works well. Never have a problem if we get healthcare in Ontario. They just accept the Alberta card.
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Re: Healthcare Ontario vs Alberta?

Post by Hopetoretire »

Thanks for all the info. I guess no decision's irreversible and if we rent, then we can be quite flexible. Of course, there's the temptation to rent a camper and spend a year or two driving through the rest of the provinces to see what we like, popping in for hotel stays intermittently. Still aways off and working, but exciting to plan. I need to build a flexible business case so I can plug in variables like cost of living comparisons, etc. but until one gets to a destination and lives there a while, we won't know if we can consider it "home". By the time I need LTC, I'll be hallucinating too much to care and living in another universe so not planning that far - fingers crossed!
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