What Your Territorial Health Plan Covers: Nunavut

Nunavut is the newest territory in Canada and it too has a territorial health insurance plan. The plan is called The Nunavut Healthcare Plan and is available to all residents of Nunavut.

What Does the Nunavut Healthcare Plan Cover?

• • Physician’s diagnosis and treatment of medical illnesses or injury
  • Surgery including surgical assistance and anesthetic services where required
  • Obstetrical care, which includes pre- and post-natal care
  • Eye exams and surgery performed by an ophthalmologist
  • The standard ICU hospital ward rate
  • Nursing services provided by the hospital
  • Diagnostic services, such as X-rays and labs
  • Drugs prescribed by a physician and administered in hospital
  • Use of the operating room, case room, and anaesthetic facilities required for diagnosis and treatment, including necessary equipment and supplies
  • Radiotherapy treatment, occupational therapy, and physiotherapy when provided by an insured facility

What is Not Covered by the Nunavut Healthcare Plan?

• Yearly physical exams for patients between the ages of 10 and 65
• Cosmetic surgery
• Prescription drugs
• Physical examinations done at the request of a third party for preschool or insurance medicals, food handlers or driver’s license examinations, or obtaining a passport or pre-employment requirements, et cetera
• Optometric services
• Dental services other than specific procedures related to jaw injury or disease
• The services of chiropractors, naturopaths, podiatrists, osteopaths, and acupuncture treatments
• Physiotherapy, speech therapy, and psychology services received in a facility that is not an insured hospital
• Any service to which a resident is entitled under legislation, such as Workers’ Compensation Act, Public Health Act, or treatments as a result of service in the Canadian Forces
• Hospital charges above the standard ward rate for private or semi-private accommodation
• Services that are not medically required, such as cosmetic surgery
• Services that are considered experimental
• Ambulance charges (except inter-hospital transfers)
• Dental services, other than specific procedures related to jaw injury or disease
• Alcohol and drug rehabilitation

Medical Travel

Given Nunavut’s rural nature, the territory’s healthcare plan will partially cover medical-related travel expenses when a physician requires the patient to seek treatment outside the territory. The Nunavut Healthcare Plan will pay your airfare less a $250 round trip deductible (co-payment) from your home community to the nearest centre where treatment is available.

If you are seeking supplemental health insurance coverage to cover what Nunavut does not, please call us at 1-866-899-4849. For more information on the Nunavut Healthcare Plan, please visit its website.