I am a new immigrant and just landed and found out that I will get health insurance after 3 months. I am expecting my baby in about one and half month. The Doctors/hospital bills are out of my reach. What options do I have? Where to go for help?
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New residents can buy private health insurance for the 3-month waiting period. I do not know whether they would refuse you for being pregnant, but you should find out. Your baby will be covered right away as soon as he or she is born, of course. The Public Health Unit for Toronto might be very helpful - Public Health Units do a lot of free programs for disadvantaged populations, and they must have encountered this scenario before. The Toronto one is called Toronto Health Connection and their contact info is in the link below. Also, you can call Telehealth Ontario, which is a provincial service with registered nurses answering the phone 24 hours a day to give people health advice and information. That means you can call them if you have any immediate concerns about your health or the baby's, and you can also ask them about how to find medical care in your community. If you aren't comfortable enough in English or French to talk to strangers about difficult things on the phone, let them know that and ask if they have someone who speaks your language or can translate -- they probably do. Best of luck! Welcome to Canada!
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