Travel insurance for visiting Canada

Canada is among the more popular tourist destinations, especially for visitors from the US, the UK, and other European countries. Beyond tourism, people travel to Canada for work, for education as well as to visit friends and family. Given this range of visitors, some stay for a few days while others stay for few months. Recent statistics indicate that the percentage of international tourists to Canada has increased, which includes a 20% increase in visitors from Australia, 15% increase in German visitors, and a 12% increase in visitors from Mexico.

An increase in visitors to Canada has raised some valid concerns about healthcare of the visitors while in the country. While many countries including the 26 Schengen countries and countries like Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Cuba, Russia...have mandated the requirement of travel health insurance, Canada requires health insurance only for a Super Visa and not for a visitor visa.

In general, travel health insurance is a very important requirement while traveling outside your home country. This is particularly important where healthcare is expensive to relieve the travellers from paying for outstanding medical cost which might result from an unexpected sickness or injury. Recent tragic incidents like the crash on highway 401 south of Ottawa make this point evident to all tourists and highlights the need for health insurance during international travel.

It may seen paradoxical to buy travel insurance for visiting Canada from a website called American Visitor Insurance, however here you find excellent international travel insurance plans which cover travellers outside their home country and work very well in Canada. These travel health insurance plans typically do not include preventive care and routine doctor visits, prescription medications for pre-existing conditions. They do however cover unexpected sickness and injury fully. These plans have great coverage for emergency medical evacuation, repatriation. These plans do cover acute onset of a pre-existing condition and recently most of plans have extended this benefit for people up to the age of 80. Some of these plans have great adventure sports coverage which is great for tourists who love sports and tour around to participate in their favorite sports activities.

Major cities in Canada are very cosmopolitan with residents from around the globe and from various different cultures. These international residents often want to bring their parents and other family members to visit Canada for a few months. Most of these visitors are older in age and have pre-existing conditions like Diabetes, Heart diseases...It is important for the insurance plans to provide coverage for acute onset of pre-existing conditions. There are many US insurance companies have designed comprehensive travel insurance plans with excellent coverage for all the benefits mentioned above including coverage for acute onset of pre-existing condition. The following are some of the popular international travel insurance plans.

The Atlas Travel insurance plan from Tokio marine HCC is a comprehensive plan that provides worldwide coverage including and excluding US. This plan has upgraded the benefits to cover acute onset of pre-existing condition for people over 70 up to age 80 Tokio marine HCC has another version of this plan called Atlas Premium. This plan is similar to Atlas Travel plan and has higher coverage for political evacuation, trip interruption and delay...

Seven Corners offers the Liaison Travel insurance plans for international travelers.

International Medical Group (IMG) offers the Patriot America Plus which is another comprehensive plan that is popular among visitors traveling outside their home country.