Most Canadians have likely heard at least one cautionary tale of a traveller getting tagged with nightmarishly high expenses for hospital stays or any kind of medical treatment in the US, but visitors coming to Canada, the land of free healthcare, should also fear for their wallets if they don’t have the right insurance coverage.
“Hospital stays in Canada can be up to $4,000 a day for a non-resident and unless they’re willing to cover that themselves, they can be putting themselves at quite a high-cost risk,” said Karen Costain, director of business development for Allianz Global Assistance Canada’s national broker channel. “Our government health plans right across the country do not cover non-residents of Canada for insurance, so a lot of people aren’t aware of this, especially when they’re coming to Canada as tourists or just for short stays.”
For brokers, visitors to Canada insurance can be a new pipeline of business that isn’t too difficult to access.
“We’re seeing a growth of about 25% in insurance sales year-over-year for this product, so that’s good news for us because the insurance market only grows at about 4% a year on average,” said Costain, adding that Allianz encourages its broker partners to look within their existing client base for leads. “Nothing is better than asking every client that sits in front of you if they’re having anyone visit them this year and to let them know that they should be getting visitors to Canada insurance before they travel.”
It’s a good time to get into this market. Tourism is up in major cities – last year, over 10 million people visited Vancouver alone, resulting in the highest overnight visitation in the city’s history, according to Tourism Vancouver – and Costain has seen growing consumer awareness about the visitors to Canada product.
When tailoring coverage for clients, there are a few variables to consider.
“With visitors, we give them options, so you could have anywhere from $10,000 worth of coverage up to $300,000 worth of coverage,” explained Costain. “We really ask them to look at the length of their stay in Canada, what they’ll be doing on their trip so that they ensure that their activities are covered, and what their current state of health is before they leave.”
With the ‘visitors to Canada’ season in full swing – Allianz starts running campaigns for this insurance product in February – now is a good time to let clients know that their grandparents, aunts, uncles, and friends might want to consider protecting themselves before their airplane takes off.
“With summer season coming, we think it’s really important that residents of Canada, when they have visitors coming, especially friends and family, that they recommend that they get travel insurance because there just isn’t that global awareness of what’s needed and a lot of other companies don’t really promote the need for travel insurance.”
