Health Care Coverage for Older People Canada

In Canada, under the universal health care system, insured services are those services that are deemed to be medically necessary. How to define the term medically necessary has been an issue of great controversy, as provincial variation exists in the interpretation of this term. The result has been that services insured in some provinces may not be insured in others. In addition to these insured services, those services that have not been defined as medically necessary, such as dental care, vision care, private or semiprivate hospital rooms, ambulance services, special nursing care, podiatry, chiropractic, and other alternative health services, prescription drugs, psychology services, and medical devices prescribed outside hospital walls, may all be covered through what is termed supplementary, or private, insurance. As of December 1996, 21.5 million people, or 72 percent of the population, had some form of private health insurance coverage (either purchased directly from a private insurer or as part of an employee benefit plan) covering extended health care benefits like drugs and home care. Private insurance for continuing care in the home or in a care center can be purchased in Canada, but it is expensive.