Super visa insurance is one specific requirement of obtaining a super visa. This article will cover all the details you need to make sure you get the best possible super visa insurance at the cheapest price.
What is super visa insurance?
One of the requirements of being approved for a super visa is that you have medical insurance that covers you for at least one year from the date of entry to Canada. The medical insurance can be from any Canadian insurance company. This is what super visa insurance or super visa health insurance is.
Basically Canada wants to make sure that you’re not going to be a financial burden on the publicly funded heath system when you visit. So you need to prove that you’ve got insurance that will cover you for any medical needs you have when you’re in Canada.
Before July 4, 2022 the medical insurance you needed had to be from a Canadian insurer. But changes came into effect on July 4, 2022 that allows IRCC to designated non-Canadian insurance companies to provide super visa insurance. But as of now, no international insurance companies have been designated so this means that still, only Canadian insurance providers can provide super visa insurance.
Any new insurers will be communicated at a “later date” on IRCC’s website according to the statement
You can read more about Canada’s healthcare system here.
If you are planning on visiting Canada for less than 6 months at a time then you don’t need a super visa. All you would need is a standard visitor visa or Electronic Travel Authorization (eTA) if you’re from a visa-exempt country and standard visitor to Canada health insurance.
And if you need more details on what a super visa is, then our full guide is here.
Super visa insurance requirements
IRCC states that the health insurance you get must meet all of the following requirements in order to be accepted:
- The medical insurance must be from a Canadian insurance company (or an international insurer that might be designated in the future – see section above for more details).
- It must be valid for at least 1 year from the date of entry to Canada.
- The policy coverage must be at least $100,000.
- The policy must cover healthcare, hospitalisation and repatriation to your home country.
- You must have proof that the health insurance has actually been purchased. A quote isn’t acceptable. But a policy paid in instalments is allowed.
These are just the super visa insurance requirements; not the requirements for the actual super visa itself. The full requirements to be approved for a super visa are listed here.
Super visa insurance cost
As with any medical insurance, the cost for super visa insurance will vary depending on the usual factors such as your age, pre-existing medical conditions and what deductible you want.
With that said though, if you’re looking for a rough idea of super visa insurance cost, I’ve outlined some ranges below. These estimates are for a one year policy with $100,000 of coverage and between zero and $1,000 deductible.
You can expect to pay around these prices for super visa insurance:
- Someone in their mid-forties with no pre-existing medical conditions should expect to pay between $800 and $1,800.
- A couple in their mid-forties with no pre-existing medical conditions will be somewhere between $1,600 and $3,600.
- Someone in their early 70s with no pre-existing medical conditions might expect to pay between $1,700 and $4,600.
- Those ranges go up markedly if you have pre-existing medical conditions, with the cheapest for someone in their early 70s with a stable pre-existing medical condition starting at around $2,200.
Again, these figures above are only to give you a feel for how much super visa insurance costs; not exact ranges.
If you really want to know how much the insurance is going to cost you then you’ll need to get a quote for your situation. The easiest way to do this is through a comparison websites such as BestQuote * which will give you a range of quotes from different providers based on your situation and then you can purchase the best fit for you through their website. Check out the best super visa insurance Canada section below for more information.
Super visa insurance monthly
Clearly the premium for any super visa health insurance is not insubstantial. So you might be looking at the best way to finance the Canadian medical insurance for super visa.
If you’re struggling to find the cash to pay the full year premium upfront, there are a few insurers that offer monthly repayments for the super visa insurance rather than the whole premium being due upfront.
But your choice of insurers will be limited which often means more expensive.
Do examine the figures closely.
For monthly repayment you likely will end up paying substantially more over the course of the policy than you would by paying the full premium upfront.
From our research, pay monthly insurance policies can be up to a whopping 30% more expensive than the pay upfront equivalent.
The price compassion website mentioned above will include policies for pay monthly so you can compare for yourself.
Use a credit card to pay your insurance premium
In many cases it could be a better option to get a low interest credit card or line of credit to pay the full year premium up front and pay the credit card balance off over the course of the year.
As I said above, you could find yourself effectively being charged up to 30% interest from the insurer if you go for pay monthly. But there’s a whole bunch of credit cards out there that charge much lower rates of interest – around 13% being fairly average.
So do your research and find the option that’s going to be the best for your situation.
Check out our articles on newcomer credit cards and building your credit score in Canada for more information on your options.
Best super visa insurance for Canada
I generally think the best way of finding super visa insurance is through a price comparison website.
The best policy will vary depending on your circumstances. Which is why I can’t really recommend a specific product or insurance company – what would be the cheapest for one person might not be for the next.
What I can recommend however is that I think BestQuote is a good comparison website to use to search for super visa insurance. When I’ve been looking for insurance they’ve most often had the best deals. Here’s the link to their page so you can search for some quotes. *
It’s pretty straight forward – you just enter some basic details about the cover you want (dates, age of people to be covered etc.) and the site will search across a whole range of providers to find the best deals for your circumstances. Once you’ve found the best option you can purchase the policy online through the BestQuote website.
* All of the products and services I recommend on Canada for Newbies are independently selected based upon what I’ve personally found to be useful. If you buy insurance through BestQuote using one of the links in this article, I might earn a small affiliate commission. It won’t cost you anything at all and I would never recommend something I don’t believe in or use myself.
I hope you’ve found this guide useful and feel ready to get the best possible deal.
Drop me a comment below with how you get on finding your insurance. Have you been able to get a great deal?
And please do drop me a comment with anything you think I’ve missed or would like more information on.