Worked arithmetic for premiums, deductibles, tax credits and dental bills, plus checklists for choosing or replacing a plan.
A health or dental plan is worth buying when the premiums you pay are reasonably likely to be smaller than the bills it reimburses, or when it protects you from a cost you could not absorb. Working that out takes a few numbers: your expected yearly expenses, the plan's premium, deductible, coinsurance and annual maximums, and the tax relief you would get anyway through the medical expense tax credit.
Start with the checklist for choosing a health and dental plan. From there, the guides walk through whether an individual plan is worth it, dental insurance versus paying the dentist yourself, how coinsurance, deductibles and maximums change what you get back, and a medical expense tax credit calculation.
Life changes create their own decisions: losing group benefits when you leave a job or retire, setting up coverage as a self-employed person, and claiming under two plans when you and your spouse both have benefits.
Use the plan comparison tool, the out-of-pocket estimate and the medical expense credit calculator alongside the guides. Every figure in the examples is illustrative; replace it with numbers from your own plan booklet or quote.
Worked Costs and Plan Checklists
A practical checklist for choosing, switching or dropping supplementary health and dental coverage in Canada, with worked arithmetic and the clauses to check first.
Worked Costs and Plan Checklists
How deductibles, coinsurance, per-visit limits, annual and lifetime maximums and dispensing fee caps decide what a Canadian health or dental plan actually reimburses.
Worked Costs and Plan Checklists
How coordination of benefits works when you and your spouse both have health or dental plans in Canada: which plan pays first, the birthday rule for children and a worked claim.
Worked Costs and Plan Checklists
Compare an individual dental plan with paying out of pocket in Canada: fee guides, coinsurance tiers, waiting periods, annual maximums, CDCP and a three-year worked example.
Worked Costs and Plan Checklists
Work out whether an individual health and dental plan pays for itself in Canada: break-even formula, three household examples, the tax credit effect and when insurance is for protection.
Worked Costs and Plan Checklists
What to do when employer health and dental benefits end after a job loss, layoff or retirement in Canada: conversion deadlines, guaranteed-issue plans, Quebec RAMQ and a cost comparison.
Worked Costs and Plan Checklists
How to calculate the federal medical expense tax credit step by step: the 3% threshold, the 12-month period, which spouse claims, eligible premiums and Quebec's separate credit.
Worked Costs and Plan Checklists
Options for self-employed Canadians and small business owners: individual and association plans, deducting premiums, health spending accounts, Quebec rules and a worked tax comparison.
