Health, vaccinations and medical care in Canada

Insurance is not optional here

Canada's public system covers residents. It does not cover you. Walking into an emergency room as a visitor means walking out with a bill.

• Expect CAD 1,000 or more a day for a hospital bed, and multiples of that in intensive care. An air ambulance out of a remote area can run past CAD 100,000.
• Buy travel insurance with medical cover and check the ceiling. A policy capped at CAD 50,000 is thin for Canada.
• Dual nationals are frequently caught out. Holding Canadian citizenship does not give you provincial health cover; that requires residency in a province, and returning Canadians face a waiting period. Being born here is not a policy.
• Declare pre-existing conditions honestly on the insurance application. Undeclared conditions are the standard reason a large claim gets refused.

Getting seen

• 911 for an ambulance, and note that ambulances are billed even to residents in most provinces. For a visitor, a few hundred dollars is normal.
• Walk-in clinics handle anything not urgent and cost far less than an emergency room. Search "walk-in clinic" plus the city; expect to pay up front, typically CAD 100 to CAD 300, and claim it back.
• Emergency room waits are long for anything not life-threatening. Six hours is unremarkable. Triage is by severity and nothing else.
• Pharmacies are excellent and pharmacists have real scope. In most provinces they can prescribe for minor ailments directly, which saves a clinic visit entirely.

What actually makes visitors ill

• Tap water is safe everywhere in the settled south. Many First Nations communities have long-standing boil-water advisories, so in the far north check locally.
• Ticks are the underrated risk. Lyme disease is established across southern Ontario, Quebec, the Maritimes and parts of Manitoba. Cover up on wooded trails, check yourself afterwards, and remove any tick promptly with fine tweezers.
• Mosquitoes carry West Nile virus in summer, mostly in the southern prairies and southern Ontario. Repellent handles it.
• Altitude affects people in the Rockies. Banff sits around 1,400 m and Lake Louise higher; the hikes go well above that. Ascend gradually and drink more water than feels necessary.
• The sun is stronger than the temperature suggests, especially on snow and on the water. Sunburn in the mountains in March is routine.
• Wildfire smoke is a health event and not just an inconvenience. See the safety section for the AQHI thresholds that matter.