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Giving birth in Canada as tourist

BelgradianDama

Full Member
Mar 19, 2019
21
19
I'm writing this post to provide some information about giving birth in Canada (Ontario) as a tourist.
I was giving birth in March 2019 and I had a visitor status in that moment, my husband is a permanent resident. I have chosen Credit Valley hospital in Mississauga.
My husband and I are from Europe and there are definitely some things that are very different.

In general, before you start seeing obgy, you need to get the requisition from family doctor. The requisition for Credit Valley hospital is not necessary for tourists. You just need to go there, ask for finance manager and pay. If you try to call obstetrics department you won't get any information about prices, you have to go and see the manager.
I payed 4500$ which includes 2500$ for the ob on the delivery, 500$ for c-section, 1200 for epidural, 300$ administration fee and first check. Note that the price doesn't include hospital stay which is 3135$ for 24h in ward, 3425$ in private room. If you don't use epidural and you don't have c-section that money will be refunded to you 2-4 weeks after giving birth.

You don't get any receipt or agreement! That's how it is in Canada. You do get confirmation from credit card machine that you paid 4500$, but you don't get the actual receipt from the hospital, where it says what you paid for. I got some printed general information sheet on which finance manager wrote by hand what 4500$ include. It was really strange.

Every visit to the obgy costs 60$ and besides that you will probably need to do ultrasound and few other exams. Ultrasound is between 110-130$, depending on where you do it. Obgy will give you requisition for particular place like Credit Valley hospital for ultrasound and Dinacare for laboratory exams. First time I did ultrasound in their hospital I didn't have nice experience, so the next time they asked me to do ultrasound I did it in the other place I have chosen. Be careful with Dinacare, try to avoid them if you can. I received a bill from them for something I never did in their lab.

In case of emergency during pregnancy use of hospital fee is 720$ and you have to pay for every doctor around 150$.

When you do exams, you don't get results. Results are sent either to your family doctor, either to the obgy. In Credit Valley everyone has to pay 5$ per page to get their results printed. Or they will allow you to take pictures.
I took pictures and on the day of delivery nurse told me that obstetrics department never sent my results to the hospital, and they want to repeat some exams. It was really ridiculous.
They did find the results eventually but it would be better if we had our results pinted and took them with us.
Overall cost was around 8000$. Note that my husband is permanent resident and baby was covered. If both parents are tourists there are additional fees to be payed for the baby.

My overall experience about Canadian medical care is not as good as they represent it. It actually has a lot of minuses in many ways.
 
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PAINKILLER28

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Jan 24, 2018
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that's because you're a TOURIST ! my wife gave birth in BC and we had BC MSP , we didn't pay a single dime ! and the overall experience was incredible . the staffs in every single step were all extremely friendly and the service was just great . if you want to have a better experience why didn't you get some status in Canada ? I guess you wouldn't be complaining if you didn't have to pay for all those medical resources you used as a tourist .
 
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BelgradianDama

Full Member
Mar 19, 2019
21
19
that's because you're a TOURIST ! my wife gave birth in BC and we had BC MSP , we didn't pay a single dime ! and the overall experience was incredible . the staffs in every single step were all extremely friendly and the service was just great . if you want to have a better experience why didn't you get some status in Canada ? I guess you wouldn't be complaining if you didn't have to pay for all those medical resources you used as a tourist .
Looks like you didn't get the point of the post. The point is providing information for people who are wondering what is the cost of giving birth, not complaining. And about your opinion that I would not complain if I didn't have to pay - belive me I would cos I can compare the medical care and the system to few European countries. And, btw, educate yourself first about how your system here works,what are the pluses and what are the minuses before you arguing about something. It's not everything about staff being nice, or not being nice. And if it's about that, then read the forums where people write about hospitals, they are not all tourists, yet the comments and ratings of your hospitals are quite low.
 

21Goose

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Nov 10, 2016
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Looks like you didn't get the point of the post. The point is providing information for people who are wondering what is the cost of giving birth, not complaining. And about your opinion that I would not complain if I didn't have to pay - belive me I would cos I can compare the medical care and the system to few European countries. And, btw, educate yourself first about how your system here works,what are the pluses and what are the minuses before you arguing about something. It's not everything about staff being nice, or not being nice. And if it's about that, then read the forums where people write about hospitals, they are not all tourists, yet the comments and ratings of your hospitals are quite low.
You've provided some useful information, which will come in handy for tourists and other non-Canadians who may want to/have to give birth in Canada.

I'll just note that my experience at Sunnybrook Hospital (I'm a PR, so I didn't have to pay anything) was quite different (and much better). All the minuses you list appear to be related to your status as a visitor, though of course I'm not saying that healthcare here can't be improved.

Still, thanks for the post. We rarely hear from people who have actually gone through the process as non-residents, so this is very useful information.
 

zardoz

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Looks like you didn't get the point of the post. The point is providing information for people who are wondering what is the cost of giving birth, not complaining. And about your opinion that I would not complain if I didn't have to pay - belive me I would cos I can compare the medical care and the system to few European countries. And, btw, educate yourself first about how your system here works,what are the pluses and what are the minuses before you arguing about something. It's not everything about staff being nice, or not being nice. And if it's about that, then read the forums where people write about hospitals, they are not all tourists, yet the comments and ratings of your hospitals are quite low.
I'm glad that you didn't have a serious emergency... The cost could easily have gone through the roof.
 

canuck_in_uk

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May 4, 2012
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I'm writing this post to provide some information about giving birth in Canada (Ontario) as a tourist.
I was giving birth in March 2019 and I had a visitor status in that moment, my husband is a permanent resident. I have chosen Credit Valley hospital in Mississauga.
My husband and I are from Europe and there are definitely some things that are very different.

In general, before you start seeing obgy, you need to get the requisition from family doctor. The requisition for Credit Valley hospital is not necessary for tourists. You just need to go there, ask for finance manager and pay. If you try to call obstetrics department you won't get any information about prices, you have to go and see the manager.
I payed 4500$ which includes 2500$ for the ob on the delivery, 500$ for c-section, 1200 for epidural, 300$ administration fee and first check. Note that the price doesn't include hospital stay which is 3135$ for 24h in ward, 3425$ in private room. If you don't use epidural and you don't have c-section that money will be refunded to you 2-4 weeks after giving birth.

You don't get any receipt or agreement! That's how it is in Canada. You do get confirmation from credit card machine that you paid 4500$, but you don't get the actual receipt from the hospital, where it says what you paid for. I got some printed general information sheet on which finance manager wrote by hand what 4500$ include. It was really strange.

Every visit to the obgy costs 60$ and besides that you will probably need to do ultrasound and few other exams. Ultrasound is between 110-130$, depending on where you do it. Obgy will give you requisition for particular place like Credit Valley hospital for ultrasound and Dinacare for laboratory exams. First time I did ultrasound in their hospital I didn't have nice experience, so the next time they asked me to do ultrasound I did it in the other place I have chosen. Be careful with Dinacare, try to avoid them if you can. I received a bill from them for something I never did in their lab.

In case of emergency during pregnancy use of hospital fee is 720$ and you have to pay for every doctor around 150$.

When you do exams, you don't get results. Results are sent either to your family doctor, either to the obgy. In Credit Valley everyone has to pay 5$ per page to get their results printed. Or they will allow you to take pictures.
I took pictures and on the day of delivery nurse told me that obstetrics department never sent my results to the hospital, and they want to repeat some exams. It was really ridiculous.
They did find the results eventually but it would be better if we had our results pinted and took them with us.
Overall cost was around 8000$. Note that my husband is permanent resident and baby was covered. If both parents are tourists there are additional fees to be payed for the baby.

My overall experience about Canadian medical care is not as good as they represent it. It actually has a lot of minuses in many ways.
The Canadian medical system is set up for providing public health care, not private. What specifically do you think was misrepresented?
 

canuck78

VIP Member
Jun 18, 2017
52,959
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Would mention that every hospital is free to charge what they want so costs are variable. If you child does not have coverage your bill can go up by 20K in a day if they end up in the NICU. As you can see the majority of Canadians do not support birth tourism so many may staff may have not been that friendly or helpful.

Canada’s healthcare system is often compared to the US so many feel lucky compared to US residents. Most new immigrants have unrealistic expectations of our healthcare system. They are expecting private healthcare for public costs and have not looked at what is actually covered. We have partial Medicare whereas European countries tend to cover more services. In their country they get seen quickly because they are part of the lucky portion of people who can pay or have insurance and labour costs to staff the hospitals are much lower. Canadian healthcare system is not perfect but you paid at least a third less than in the US for the same care.
 
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Hurlabrick

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I have to say our opinion of Ontario healthcare is that it is significantly better than we experienced in the UK.

We are seen much quicker and family doctors do not skimp on tests and seem keen to have annual check-ups. Sure, we have to pay for our own drugs, so a pharmacare plan would be nice but hey - generally very happy with the system here.
 

canuck78

VIP Member
Jun 18, 2017
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I have to say our opinion of Ontario healthcare is that it is significantly better than we experienced in the UK.

We are seen much quicker and family doctors do not skimp on tests and seem keen to have annual check-ups. Sure, we have to pay for our own drugs, so a pharmacare plan would be nice but hey - generally very happy with the system here.
Think that there is a lot of variability depending on the doctor, the region in Canada, how complex your condition is, etc. Also has a little t to do with what type of care you are receiving. Canada does cancer care pretty well although some rural areas easpecially in the Maritimes have quite a life t of issues, emergency care, pregnancy and labour we do very well, great paediatric care, plus a few others. Things like longterm care, homecare, dementia, longterm complex illnesses, mental health, lonh waits for hip replacements but knees are a bit quicker, cataracts have become much faster from waitlists that lasted years in some areas, neurosurgery wait times are usually pretty bad,etc. Long list and it really depends on where you live. Thankful for the system but it has a long list of shortcomings. Not just missing a pharmacare program but dental, physio, psychotherapy/counselling are some of the things that Canadians really need but are not covered. Just waited 8 months to see a specialist. 6 months is pretty average for all the specialists I have seen. So times I get lucky and wait 2 months. I have definitely felt that I have received all the tests necessary but also feel that I am directing my care. Perhaps it is because I am able to direct my care, diagnose myself, remind my doctors what to do and coordinate between them but wonder what would happen if I couldn’t do this all myself. Unfortunately have seen others who have definitely fallen through the cracks or aren’t even able to secure a family doctor. Hard to criticize the NHS when that could be us in 30-40 years.
 

Rishi0235

Star Member
Aug 21, 2018
85
14
I'm writing this post to provide some information about giving birth in Canada (Ontario) as a tourist.
I was giving birth in March 2019 and I had a visitor status in that moment, my husband is a permanent resident. I have chosen Credit Valley hospital in Mississauga.
My husband and I are from Europe and there are definitely some things that are very different.

In general, before you start seeing obgy, you need to get the requisition from family doctor. The requisition for Credit Valley hospital is not necessary for tourists. You just need to go there, ask for finance manager and pay. If you try to call obstetrics department you won't get any information about prices, you have to go and see the manager.
I payed 4500$ which includes 2500$ for the ob on the delivery, 500$ for c-section, 1200 for epidural, 300$ administration fee and first check. Note that the price doesn't include hospital stay which is 3135$ for 24h in ward, 3425$ in private room. If you don't use epidural and you don't have c-section that money will be refunded to you 2-4 weeks after giving birth.

You don't get any receipt or agreement! That's how it is in Canada. You do get confirmation from credit card machine that you paid 4500$, but you don't get the actual receipt from the hospital, where it says what you paid for. I got some printed general information sheet on which finance manager wrote by hand what 4500$ include. It was really strange.

Every visit to the obgy costs 60$ and besides that you will probably need to do ultrasound and few other exams. Ultrasound is between 110-130$, depending on where you do it. Obgy will give you requisition for particular place like Credit Valley hospital for ultrasound and Dinacare for laboratory exams. First time I did ultrasound in their hospital I didn't have nice experience, so the next time they asked me to do ultrasound I did it in the other place I have chosen. Be careful with Dinacare, try to avoid them if you can. I received a bill from them for something I never did in their lab.

In case of emergency during pregnancy use of hospital fee is 720$ and you have to pay for every doctor around 150$.

When you do exams, you don't get results. Results are sent either to your family doctor, either to the obgy. In Credit Valley everyone has to pay 5$ per page to get their results printed. Or they will allow you to take pictures.
I took pictures and on the day of delivery nurse told me that obstetrics department never sent my results to the hospital, and they want to repeat some exams. It was really ridiculous.
They did find the results eventually but it would be better if we had our results pinted and took them with us.
Overall cost was around 8000$. Note that my husband is permanent resident and baby was covered. If both parents are tourists there are additional fees to be payed for the baby.

My overall experience about Canadian medical care is not as good as they represent it. It actually has a lot of minuses in many ways.
Helo belgradian how many all charges for baby birth delivery in canada tourist visa please know me urgently
 

Bs65

VIP Member
Mar 22, 2016
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Helo belgradian how many all charges for baby birth delivery in canada tourist visa please know me urgently
Maybe read the original post which has a summary of the charges as posted by belgradian , just have to add them all up probably have to budget at least 10000 CDN but could be a lot more if complications which is why generally coming to Canada for birth tourism is generally discouraged.

A few years back believe in Vancouver area tourists gave birth maybe prematurely not sure and believe there were complications which resulted in a 6 figure cost to the tourist parents . Obviously an extreme worst case but can happen and as tourists would be on your own to pay up.

Plus of course tourists giving birth in Canada gives the parents zero rights to remain in Canada beyond their authorised stay even though the new born gets citizenship.
 

scylla

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Helo belgradian how many all charges for baby birth delivery in canada tourist visa please know me urgently
Plan on it costing at least $8,000. However the costs could be much much higher if there are any complications. You should have at least $10,000 set aside to cover the costs - $25,000 would be better. Understand that if there are complications - the costs could sky-rocket to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
 

Buletruck

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May 18, 2015
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Given your previous posts (wife is in her 8th month 3 weeks ago), unless you and your wife are in Canada now, the chances of boarding a plane are effectively zero at this stage in her pregnancy. You should be looking at a birth at home.