{"id":237486,"date":"2025-10-24T18:03:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T18:03:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/237486\/"},"modified":"2025-10-24T18:03:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T18:03:12","slug":"quebecers-pay-millions-each-year-for-health-care-in-other-provinces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/237486\/","title":{"rendered":"Quebecers pay millions each year for health care in other provinces"},"content":{"rendered":"

Quebec\u00a0residents paid more than $10 million out of pocket to receive health care<\/a> in other provinces last year.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Unlike other provinces,\u00a0Quebec\u00a0has opted not to adopt reciprocal billing agreements with other jurisdictions for most medical services.<\/p>\n

That means Quebecers travelling outside the province have to pay for health care upfront and then submit their expenses to Quebec\u2019s public health insurance board, which may not fully reimburse the costs. Residents of other provinces who need medical services while in\u00a0Quebec\u00a0must also pay out of pocket.<\/p>\n

Data obtained by The Canadian Press through an access-to-information request show that in 2024, Quebecers submitted $12.6 million in expenses to the health insurance board for services provided by professionals in other Canadian provinces. Of this amount, the board reimbursed only $2.3 million.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"Receive<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tGet weekly health news<\/p>\n

Receive the latest medical news and health information delivered to you every Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince\u00a0Quebec\u00a0does not have reciprocal billing agreements for medical services with other provinces,\u00a0Quebec\u00a0residents generally pay for these services out of pocket and are then reimbursed according to Quebec\u2019s own rates, rather than the host province\u2019s rates,\u201d Health Canada wrote in an email to The Canadian Press.<\/p>\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n

However, the difference in the rates between provinces can be significant. The\u00a0Quebec\u00a0Health Department says it encourages people to take out private medical insurance for any travel outside the province.<\/p>\n

Charles Shaver, a retired internal medicine doctor in Ottawa, said his clinic had a policy not to see out-of-province patients who could not or would not pay for care. He said doctors and private clinics in eastern Ontario often bill\u00a0Quebec\u00a0patients at rates set by the Ontario Medical Association, which are higher than those set by the government-run Ontario Health Insurance Plan.<\/p>\n

\n\t\tTrending Now\n\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\/<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tVideo captures thieves escaping after Louvre Museum jewel heist\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\/<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tRogers outage lawsuit moving ahead, millions may get compensation\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a good situation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMore on Canada
\n\t\t\tMore videos\n\t\t<\/p>\n

Physicians from other provinces can choose to bill\u00a0Quebec\u00a0patients directly or send their fees to the\u00a0Quebec\u00a0health insurance board for reimbursement. But the insurance board generally does not reimburse them in full.<\/p>\n

In 2024, the\u00a0Quebec\u00a0health insurance board was billed $8.9 million by professionals outside\u00a0Quebec\u00a0and reimbursed only $7 million.<\/p>\n

Under the Canada Health Act, provinces and territories must cover the cost of emergency medical and hospital services for their residents when they are temporarily outside their province.<\/p>\n

Quebec\u00a0has signed reciprocal billing agreements for hospital insurance with each province and territory, which allows\u00a0Quebec\u00a0residents to receive hospital care anywhere in Canada without having to pay for it.<\/p>\n

However, the Health Department said there are no plans to sign reciprocal billing agreements for other medical services.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2025 The Canadian Press\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Quebec\u00a0residents paid more than $10 million out of pocket to receive health care in other provinces last year.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":237487,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[49,48,84,5432,392],"class_list":["post-237486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}