With changes this year to Ontarians’ out-of-country health insurance coverage – and some public cases of tourists being denied coverage after getting sick abroad – travellers from Ontario could be wondering whether they have proper travel medical coverage.
Meanwhile, stories of Canadians being denied reimbursement through their private travel coverage have peppered the news cycle. A man from Kitchener, Ont., who found out he had a brain tumour in Thailand in December was initially denied coverage after a hospital visit for the flu was flagged as a pre-existing condition.
Jeff Simpson, a THIA member from Calgary, says the organization has been pushing the industry to simplify and standardize terms so they are easier for customers to decipher. “Travel insurance is one of the last insurance markets that has very diverse levels of coverage, and the understanding of some of the key terms is quite different from company to company,” said Mr. Simpson, president of Simpson Group Insurance Services Inc.
Those changes may increase the cost of private coverage, he adds, but we likely won’t see rate hikes until summer, after the snowbird season has ended and insurers take stock of how much the changes affected them. He has seen reports that rates could rise as much as 7.5 per cent, but thinks that much of a hike is unlikely.