Say, they drive across to Niagara for the day and get involved in a serious car accident that puts them in a Canadian hospital and the nature of the injury precludes moving them.
Obviously, if s/he has travel insurance, they’re covered. But what if they don’t, and they also don’t have any personal healthcare insurance from home - what happens?
Does it make any difference they’re in Canada legally?
How about if the same thing happened at Tijuana?
Thanks.
The Canadian health care system is very much like the American system – if you don’t have insurance, you have to pay out of pocket. The difference in Canada is that all legal residents have health insurance premiums paid for by their employer or by the government (for those who are unemployed). Therefore, an uninsured American or illegal immigrant would be in the same situation, and have to pay for any care they received here.
Hmm, but the reason they’re uninsured in the US is because they don’t have any money.
From experience: You pay out of pocket (usually with credit card), and submit the receipts to your American insurance company for reimbursement. A royal pain in the backside.
No. Many if not most of us pay our own premiums.
Regardless of your financial status the Canadian government won’t cover your health care for your stated question.
Many places won’t treat foreigners without money up front.
You’re right, I forgot that not all provinces do it through employer taxes. Mea culpa.
For those not in/from Canada - Health Care is a Provincial responsibility under the Canada Health Act which provides federal funds to the provinces with the requirement that certain standards be met.
For the experience of one foreigner in the Canadian health care system see this article by Jeremy Clarkson (of Top Gear fame). Not a happy experience :dubious:
Many years ago, I worked for an agency of the Ontario Ministry of Health, and had to know the procedures as to the Ontario Health Insurance Plan’s (OHIP’s) health care billing according to the Schedule of Benefits (the book of what was covered and the amounts paid for procedures). My knowledge thus may be a little out-of-date, but here it is, FWIW.
Given the scenario in the OP, the Canadian hospital would ask for payment–to the best of my knowledge, they will take cash or credit cards. Of course, services will be rendered regardless of ability to pay, especially if it is a life-or-death situation. But once the immediate and/or life-threatening need is taken care of (or if there is none), settlement will occur, or other billing arrangements will be made before other, non-life-saving, procedures are done.
Unfortunately, Homer Simpson had it wrong when he told Marge as he stepped off a Toronto curb against a red light, “It’s okay, Marge. They have free health care.” No, Homer (or his US insurer) would be billed for services rendered in a Toronto hospital. He doesn’t pay Ontario taxes; he doesn’t get free Ontario health care.
Doesn’t the Death Panel rule against the American and sell his organs to cover its costs?
Around 15 years ago I had a serious accident in New Zealand (crashed flying a paraglider - various broken bones and other significant problems). I spent 8 weeks in a hospital, for which all costs were covered by the kiwi national health plan. I had US insurance that would have covered much of this, but there was no need to use it.
This was rather early in the NZ experience with national health care. I have been told that this would no longer be the case: costs ran substantially ahead of projections, and numerous aspects of the system had to be tightened up.
What sort of documentation has to be produced by a patient to show that he or she is eligible for provincial health care? How do undocumented immigrants qualify?
Everyone covered gets a photo ID card. Mine is green and white and says Health Santé on it. Looks a lot like a driver’s license, the older ones. When I went to the clinic, it was either “show your Health Card” or make other arrangements to pay. If you’re undocumented, presumably you have to become documented to get this card.
Are the Canadian hospitals permitted to ask your immigration status?
Obviously the easiest way to get treatment is to claim your a citizen and say you were robbed and had your wallet stolen so you have no ID. This would not work unless it was a true emergency though. It works in the USA.
I have friends in NZ and their health system still rocks, but it is two tiered, you have some employers that give health insurance and if you have that you can go to a private hospital a lot quicker. But NZ is small less than 4 million people so it’s easy to manage, I imagine.
AFAIK, you’d still be billed, and if you actually had a health card, you could try to get reimbursed by your provincial plan later.
By the way, being a citizen does not necessarily mean you have a valid healthcard - they do expire. I can only speak about the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP for short), but they won’t always have their act together as far as sending new ones out - the individual must keep on top of that. You can be billed if your healthcard is outdated.
NZ’s population is approx 4.3 M ATM. 
In the situation described in the OP, everyone in NZ is covered, including visitors, see the ACC web site.
If you happen to fall ill, though, you’d better have travel insurance. Non residents are not eligible for free healthcare in hospitals. From reading local newspaper reports, non residents having babies in hospitals here seem to leave without paying. The local hospital board is owed about $25M by them.
Mind you, it’s only recently that they seem to have realised it’s a problem. I believe they are asking to see evidence of NZ citizenship or permanent residency if they think you are a foreigner.
My mother-in-law, a Dutch immigrant in 1950, still speaks with a marked Dutch accent and she was asked for proof of her citizenship when she recently had a cardio test. She’s 85 and has lived here for 59 years 
Yep, right after they salute Hitler.
It’s irrelevant. All a Canadian hospital (or a doctor’s office, or whatever) cares about is whether you have a valid health card from a Canadian jurisdiction. I am a born and raised Canadian, but if I show up at a hospital and forget my heath card, I get billed. My wife went for a routine appointment and forgot her card. They sent her an invoice. They’ll resend it to OHIP after the fact if you bring it in with your card, but it’s on you to prove you;ve
Of course, as a practical matter, you can’t legally get a health card unless you are a legal resident. (Not that there aren’t some phony cards out there.)
Interesting. Two stories from my own experience in countries with universal healthcare:
My wife was in England with a friend. They were in a head-on collision and my wife suffered a fractured collarbone. When all was done, and she hadn’t yet received a bill or discussed insurance, she went to the hospital administration to find out how to pay for all the care she received. The answer was, basically, “why would we charge you?”
When I lived in Belgium, my daughter fractured her left femur. ER, surgery, recovery, post-op visits. Not a penny paid.