Dealing with bank branches in your home province | General financial discussion | Discussion forum

An airplane trip for the executor is exactly what I'm trying to avoid! - who may be quite elderly and not qualify for travel health insurance by then.

Is your executor(trix) from the United States? The equality principles of Canada's universal public health care mean travel health insurance is unnecessary for Canadian residents. If your executor(trix) is from the U.S., I might suggest a Canadian-residing executor(trix) as I've read that estate administrators from outside the country can be problematic, perhaps more problematic than the branch of a domiciled bank account.

Cheers,
Doug

There are interprovincal billing agreements between most of the provinces for medically necessary hospital services and physician services. But, it doesn't cover non-hospital and non-physical services like ambulance.

Quebec didn't sign the agreements and also pays lower rates for services. Hospitals and doctors in other provinces have learned from experience that they will be shortchanged by the Quebec health plan. Consequently, they will ask Quebec patients to pay upfront.

I suggest anyone who is travelling out of province discuss this with a licensed insurance agent, for their own protection.

You may have persuaded me to do without travel health insurance domestically, although it isn't as good as having it.

I have read in the past of significant disparities in rates for the same item in different provinces, not just Quebec. If, for example, you are hospitalized in BC and the daily rate for a ward room happens to be $200/day more than in your home province, is your home province going to pay the full rate? I just can't see that happening. Either the province where the incident happened has to agree to take less or the home province has to agree to pay more. Does anyone have any experience with this?

However, interprovincial travel isn't the only issue I am concerned about in relation to out-of-province FIs,
In the case of those that are provincially regulated, rules could change that we would not be aware of, especially in regards to POAs and wills.

In general, I am much more comfortable with FIs where I can talk to someone, preferably in person, locally.
Nobody has to agree with me, and I don't completely rule out out-of-province FIs. However, if you can get what you need at home, why go elsewhere?
I am tempted by Motive's Savvy Savings at the moment, as a replacement to Tangerine., especially for joint account. But I imagine that as soon as we move our money there, the rate will fall!

Doug said

… I'm not sure whether you'd be liable for the full cost of the ambulance trip - I suspect not - the universality provisions of the Canada Health Act would seem to require that province B submits bill for that portion covered to its provincial residents to province A of the touring Canadian resident. Sure, the touring Canadian resident may be liable for a larger co-pay if province B has a higher co-payment, but that's not especially significant.
…

It is highly likely you would be liable for the full cost of the ambulance trip and for the cost of the accompanying fire truck.

Universality in section 10 of the Canada Health Act only deals with the persons eligible to be covered by a provincial plan, not the comprehensiveness of the coverage:

Universality

10 In order to satisfy the criterion respecting universality, the health care insurance plan of a province must entitle one hundred per cent of the insured persons of the province to the insured health services provided for by the plan on uniform terms and conditions.

Comprehensiveness is addressed in section 9 and is limited to the "insured health services" as defined in section 2 of the Canada Health Act and not as defined by any of the provincial plans. Ambulances and fire trucks are not included:

Definitions

2 In this Act,
…
insured health services means hospital services, physician services and surgical-dental services provided to insured persons, but does not include any health services that a person is entitled to and eligible for under any other Act of Parliament or under any Act of the legislature of a province that relates to workers’ or workmen’s compensation; 
…

Comprehensiveness

9 In order to satisfy the criterion respecting comprehensiveness, the health care insurance plan of a province must insure all insured health services provided by hospitals, medical practitioners or dentists, and where the law of the province so permits, similar or additional services rendered by other health care practitioners.

The portability in section 11 does not require a provincial plan to provide coverage for medically necessary but non-emergency out-of-province services:

Requirement for consent for elective insured health services permitted

11 (2) The criterion respecting portability is not contravened by a requirement of a provincial health care insurance plan that the prior consent of the public authority that administers and operates the plan must be obtained for elective insured health services provided to a resident of the province while temporarily absent from the province if the services in question were available on a substantially similar basis in the province.

Definition of elective insured health services

(3) For the purpose of subsection (2), elective insured health services means insured health services other than services that are provided in an emergency or in any other circumstance in which medical care is required without delay.