Travel Insurance Statistics in Canada (2026): Coverage
Canadians took 92.6M trips abroad in 2024, yet 23% would go uninsured — while provincial plans pay almost nothing and US bills hit six figures.
Key takeaways
- Canadians took 92.6 million trips abroad in 2024, up 10% and near pre-pandemic levels — yet 23% would travel uninsured to save money, rising to 47% among Gen Z (StatCan; THIA).
- Provincial health plans pay almost nothing abroad: Ontario's out-of-country program paid only $50–$400 a day before it was cancelled in 2020 — against US bills that reach six figures (CBC; Global News).
- Claims are paid far more often than travellers fear: about 95% are paid and only 2–3% denied — with non-disclosure of pre-existing conditions the leading cause of the denials (KPMG/THIA).
- Age is the biggest price driver: a 60-day travel-medical policy roughly doubles between age 55 and 75, with the steepest jumps at 71, 76, 81 and 86 (Snowbird Advisor; InsuranceXpert analysis).
The gap that matters in Canadian travel insurance is not between insured and uninsured travellers — it is between what people think their provincial plan covers abroad and what it actually pays. Ontario’s out-of-country program paid $50 to $400 a day before it was cancelled outright in 2020, against documented Canadian hospital bills of US$108,000. Yet 23% of Canadians, and 47% of Gen Z, would still travel without cover. What that risk actually costs, how often claims really pay, and where the coverage ends — all sourced.
How many Canadians travel abroad — and how many go uninsured?
Canadians took 92.6 million trips abroad in 2024, up 10% year over year and back to 92.6% of the pre-pandemic (2019) level — yet 23% say they’d travel uninsured to save money. The travel recovery and the coverage gap are both real at once.
On the travel side (Statistics Canada, 2024):
- 39.0 million trips to the United States (+4.4%, 89.0% of 2019).
- 13.0 million overseas trips (+30.9%) — surpassing pre-pandemic levels for the first time.
- The balance of the 92.6 million total is same-day US trips.
The catch: overseas travel grew 7.0 times faster than US travel last year (+30.9% versus +4.4%), and overseas trips are the only category to have passed their pre-pandemic level while US trips sit at 89.0% of 2019 (InsuranceXpert analysis on Statistics Canada data). That shift matters more than the headline total, because it moves Canadians away from a destination where their provincial plan pays a token amount toward destinations where it typically pays nothing at all — and where a medical evacuation costs far more than a flight home from Florida.
On the insurance side (THIA, 2025), the willingness to skip coverage is generational: 23% of all Canadians would travel abroad uninsured, but 47% of Gen Z (18–28) would — the group least able to absorb a large medical bill. Historically only about 47% of Canadians said they “always” buy travel insurance, and buyers skew older (more than half were 55+).
Source: Statistics Canada, Travel between Canada and other countries, 2024
What does your provincial health plan cover abroad?
Almost nothing — and in Ontario’s case, nothing at all since 2020. The federal government is blunt: provincial and territorial plans “may cover none or only a small part of medical care abroad and will never pay bills up front.”
Ontario’s now-cancelled Out-of-Country Travellers Program is the clearest illustration of how thin this coverage was:
| OHIP out-of-country coverage (before cancellation) | Daily maximum |
|---|---|
| Outpatient care | up to $50/day |
| Inpatient care | up to $200/day |
| Intensive inpatient care | up to $400/day |
| Renal dialysis (the one surviving exception) | up to $210/treatment |
Source: CBC / Ontario. The program ended January 1, 2020 — Ontario said it cost $2.8 million to administer just $9 million of annual claims.
Against those daily maximums, the actual bills sit in another order of magnitude. Documented Canadian cases include a US$108,000 hospital bill for a BC traveller and a stroke abroad that generated a bill over $110,000 (Global News, 2025). This mismatch — a few hundred dollars a day of public coverage against six-figure private bills — is the entire reason travel medical insurance exists.
How much does travel insurance cost in Canada?
Age is the single biggest price driver — a travel-medical policy roughly doubles between 55 and 75. For a healthy young traveller, emergency medical is cheap; for a snowbird, it’s the biggest line item of the trip.
| Traveller / policy | Typical cost |
|---|---|
| Healthy 35-year-old, 5-day US trip (medical only) | ~$30–$50 |
| 55-year-old, 60-day single-trip medical | ~$160–$190 |
| 65-year-old, 60-day single-trip medical | ~$240–$260 |
| 75-year-old, 60-day single-trip medical | ~$430–$475 |
| 75-year-old, 120-day trip | ~$1,010–$1,050 |
| Snowbird average (early 70s, 30–57 days) | ~$720–$760 |
Sources: HealthQuotes (2025), Snowbird Advisor rate tables (illustrative), Rates.ca (2025). Rate-table figures are directional, not live quotes.
From those tables, a 60-day US medical policy roughly doubles in price between age 55 and 75 — about $175 to $450, a 160% increase — with the steepest jumps clustered at ages 71, 76, 81 and 86 (InsuranceXpert analysis). Trip-cancellation and interruption coverage is priced separately, typically 4–10% of your total prepaid trip cost (for example, $200–$500 on a $5,000 trip).
Source: Snowbird Advisor rate tables (midpoints; illustrative, not current quotes)
How often do travel insurance claims actually get paid?
About 95% of travel insurance claims are paid, and only 2–3% are denied. The fear of denial is far larger than the reality — but the denials that do happen are almost always avoidable.
| Claim outcome | Figure |
|---|---|
| Claims paid | ~95% |
| Claims denied | ~2–3% |
| Canadians who gave inaccurate health info inadvertently | 18% |
| Canadians who gave inaccurate health info deliberately | 14% |
Sources: KPMG survey for THIA (paid rate); Travel Insurance Review Canada (denial rate); THIA (disclosure accuracy).
The number-one reason for denial is failure to fully and accurately disclose a pre-existing medical condition, or a condition that wasn’t “stable” for the required window — usually 90 to 180 days before travel. The disclosure data explains the denials: 14% of Canadians admit they deliberately gave inaccurate health information, half of them to get a lower rate. Honest, complete answers on the medical questionnaire are the single most reliable way to make sure a claim pays.
What does trip cancellation insurance cover — and cost?
Trip cancellation and interruption is a separate product from emergency medical, and it’s priced off your trip cost, not your age. Where emergency medical protects against a catastrophic hospital bill, cancellation coverage reimburses prepaid, non-refundable trip costs if you have to cancel before you leave or cut a trip short after it starts.
- Cost typically runs 4–10% of total trip cost — for example, $200–$500 on a $5,000 trip.
- A comprehensive plan bundling medical and cancellation averages roughly $31 a day.
- The top covered reasons for a claim are sudden illness or injury (to you or a travelling companion), a death in the family, severe weather en route or at the destination, and an emergency at home.
Sources: Ratehub / Canadian LIC; Manulife CoverMe / RBC Insurance.
Because cancellation coverage hinges on the reason for cancelling, reading the list of covered perils matters as much as the price — a cheaper policy that excludes your most likely cancellation trigger is no bargain. Travellers worried about flexibility sometimes add a “cancel for any reason” upgrade, which costs more but loosens the covered-reason requirement.
What about snowbirds and visitors to Canada?
Snowbirds are the biggest driver of Canadian travel-medical demand — and visitors to Canada face their own coverage rules. With 12.2 million Canadians aged 55 or older (about a third of the population), the winter migration south is a major market: 93% of Canadians 55+ say they plan to take out travel insurance for future trips abroad (Conference Board of Canada).
For inbound travel, the Super Visa (for parents and grandparents) is the one case where coverage is effectively mandatory — applicants must hold Canadian medical insurance of at least $100,000, valid for a year, from a Canadian or OSFI-authorized insurer:
| Super Visa insurance cost | Typical annual premium |
|---|---|
| Healthy 60-year-old | $1,500–$2,500 |
| Healthy 75-year-old | $3,500–$5,000 |
Sources: IRCC (requirement); GMS / PolicyAdvisor (typical cost).
Is the travel insurance market growing?
Yes — sharply, though estimates of its size vary widely. Canada is described as the fastest-growing regional travel-insurance market in North America, with single-trip policies the largest revenue segment. But market-size figures diverge enormously depending on methodology (more in the methodology section): estimates of the 2024 market range from about US$543 million to US$2.3 billion, with projected growth rates from 9.5% to 18.5% a year to 2030.
One clear post-2025 trend: a sharp cooling toward US travel. THIA’s 2025 winter survey found 70% of Canadians unlikely to visit the US and only 26% likely — a 37% year-over-year drop in intent — driven by political and exchange-rate factors, which is reshaping where Canadians travel and insure. US-bound travel had already softened, falling 2.7% in the first half of 2024 year over year, with southbound air travel down 11.3% (Conference Board of Canada). At the same time, overseas trips surged past pre-pandemic levels, so the demand is shifting rather than disappearing — and travel-medical needs move with it, since the destinations Canadians are pivoting toward carry their own medical-cost and coverage considerations (InsuranceXpert analysis).
Methodology: why do the sources disagree?
Travel insurance statistics are among the messiest in the industry, because “travel,” “cost” and “market size” each mean several different things. Here’s how to read the numbers.
Trips vs travellers vs return-trips. Statistics Canada reports 92.6 million trips abroad in 2024, but a separate table cites 38.7 million return trips with $52.9 billion in spending. These are different frames — total trips (including same-day car crossings) versus overnight return trips versus traveller counts. The overnight US (39.0M) and overseas (13.0M) figures don’t sum to 92.6M because the balance is same-day US trips. Never conflate “trips” with “people,” and always state which table a figure comes from.
Market-size estimates diverge fourfold. Research firms put Canada’s 2024 travel-insurance market anywhere from about US$543 million to US$2.3 billion, with 2030 CAGRs from 9.5% to 18.5%. The gap comes from what each counts: emergency-medical-only premiums versus all-inclusive (medical + cancellation + baggage), gross written premium versus revenue, and whether embedded credit-card coverage is included. Treat any single market number as a range, not a fact.
Premiums vs claims are opposite sides of the ledger. Industry “market size” is premiums collected; the six-figure hospital bills are claims paid out on individuals. A large premium base and a scary individual claim are both true and not contradictory.
Emergency medical vs trip cancellation vs comprehensive. “Travel insurance” bundles very different products. Emergency medical can be $30–$50 for a young traveller; comprehensive/cancellation runs 4–10% of trip cost; snowbird annual medical is $700+. A cost stat is meaningless without the product type, age, trip length and destination.
Survey and rate-table vintage. Several widely-cited uptake stats (47% always buy, 35% uninsured) are from THIA’s 2013–2014 surveys, while the fresh 2025 data reframes uptake around cost-cutting and US-travel avoidance — attitudes shifted materially post-COVID. Likewise, the OHIP per-day figures and the Snowbird Advisor rate tables are older/illustrative, so we present them as historical or directional rather than current market quotes.
Being explicit about which frame each number uses is what separates a trustworthy statistic from a misleading one — which is why we source and label every figure on this page.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need travel insurance if I have provincial health coverage?
Yes. Your provincial plan covers very little outside Canada — the federal government warns it 'may cover none or only a small part' of care abroad and will never pay bills up front. Ontario went further and cancelled its out-of-country travel program entirely on January 1, 2020; even before that it paid only $50–$400 a day. A serious medical emergency abroad, especially in the US, can produce a bill in the tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars, which is exactly what travel medical insurance covers.
What percentage of Canadians travel without insurance?
About 23% of Canadians say they would travel abroad uninsured to save money, and among Gen Z (18–28) that jumps to 47% (THIA, 2025). Historically only about 47% of Canadians said they 'always' buy travel insurance (THIA, 2014), with buyers skewing older — more than half were 55 or over.
How much does travel insurance cost for Canadians?
It depends heavily on age, trip length and destination. Emergency medical for a healthy 35-year-old on a short US trip can be as low as $30–$50, while a snowbird policy averages around $720–$760 for a 70–71-year-old on a month-plus trip (Rates.ca, HealthQuotes, 2025). Trip-cancellation coverage is separate and typically runs 4–10% of your prepaid trip cost. Age is the single biggest driver — premiums roughly double between 55 and 75.
Why do travel insurance claims get denied?
The leading reason is a pre-existing medical condition that wasn't disclosed or wasn't 'stable' for the required period — usually 90 to 180 days before travel. Encouragingly, denials are rare: about 95% of claims are paid and only 2–3% denied (KPMG/THIA). But 18% of Canadians admit they have inadvertently given inaccurate health information on a travel form, and 14% did so deliberately — half of them to get a lower rate — which is exactly what triggers a denial at claim time.
How much can an uninsured medical bill abroad cost?
Six figures. Documented Canadian cases include a British Columbia woman hit with a US$108,000 hospital bill after a medical emergency, and a stroke abroad that generated a bill over $110,000 (Global News, 2025). US care in particular is extraordinarily expensive, and an air ambulance alone can cost tens of thousands of dollars — which is why the core travel product is emergency medical, not trip cancellation.
How much does snowbird travel insurance cost?
The average snowbird policy runs about $720–$760 for a traveller in their early 70s on a 30–57 day trip (Rates.ca, 2025). Age is the dominant factor: a 60-day medical policy roughly doubles between age 55 and 75, with the steepest jumps at ages 71, 76, 81 and 86. For anyone taking multiple trips a year, an annual multi-trip plan is usually far cheaper than buying single-trip policies each time.
Is travel insurance mandatory for visitors to Canada?
It isn't mandatory for most visitors, but it's strongly advised since they aren't covered by Canadian medicare. The key exception is the Super Visa for parents and grandparents, which requires holding Canadian medical insurance of at least $100,000, valid for a year, from a Canadian or OSFI-authorized insurer. Super Visa coverage typically costs $1,500–$2,500 a year for a healthy 60-year-old and $3,500–$5,000 for a 75-year-old (IRCC; PolicyAdvisor).