Affordable Coverage for Health Insurance for Individuals
- Medical Health Insurance Rates in Canada -

When you think of affordable coverage for health insurance does the word free come to mind?

Universal health insurance for all individuals living in Canada is offered at reasonable rates or at no charge.

The Canada Health Act requires that individual medical health insurance plans are administered publicly on a non-profit basis, and that ability to pay cannot be used as a basis to withhold personal medical insurance.

All provinces have plans in place for low income individuals so they have access to affordable coverage for health insurance just like anybody else.

Provincial governments either subsidize payments or pay for the health insurance for low income individuals and their families.

This is required under the universality clause of the Canada Health Act which states that ability to pay cannot be used as a criteria to withhold health insurance coverage.

From the following chart it is pretty obvious that there is affordable coverage for health insurance for all individuals in Canada.

In those provinces that charge a premium, health insurance for individuals costs about $60.00 per month.That is affordable.

Health insurance premiums for families top out at about $121.00 per month.

Rates for Affordable Coverage for Health Insurance for Individuals and Families in Canada
Province	individual medical health insurance rates	family of two	family of three or more
British Columbia effective Jan 1 2011	$60.50	$109.00	$121.00
Alberta	Full premiums $63.50 Subsidized premiums $44.45	Full premiums $118.00 per month Subsidized premiums $82.60 per month
Saskatchewan	$60 monthly premium for individual medical health insurance	$109	$121
Ontario	Ontario has a formula for calculating how much premium is payable per year based on income. They have tied this premium to the process of collecting income tax. Most family and personal medical insurance payments are deducted at source through employer deductions and remissions however, there are other systems in place for people who are not employed and seniors can elect to have deductions taken off their pension income to pay the health insurance premium. Generally anyone with less than $20,000 does not pay any premiums. The exact amount of the premium payable, if any, would depend on the individual's taxable income for the year. Individuals who do not have taxes deducted at source can elect to make installment payments or pay the premium when they file their tax return.

Rates for Affordable Coverage for Health Insurance for Individuals and Families in Canada

Manitoba Nova Scotia Prince Edward Island Yukon North West Territories

There is really affordable coverage for health insurance in these provinces. It is free. Which basically means that they do not have health insurance premiums. If you apply and meet the eligibility requirements you are considered an "insured person". In order to keep your insurance you must continue to meet residency requirements. These provinces do not rely on health insurance premiums to partially fund the costs of health care, but instead they use the general revenues of the provincial government, with additional funds provided by the Government of Canada.

Provinces that do not charge personal medical insurance premiums have simply abandoned the bureaucracy of collecting payments and approving and monitoring subsidies as part of their health insurance plan.

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