Posted on Monday, September 19th, 2011 at 12:44 pm

While Quebec offer its citizens national health care, it is not available to international students studying in Quebec unless there is a bilateral agreement that entitles them to national health care in Canada. While China does not have an agreement, France, Denmark, Luxembourg, Norway, Portugal, and Sweden all allow students to obtain free health care in Quebec.

If you are not from one of these countries, however, you will need to purchase a private health insurance for your studies in Quebec. Most universities, however, have their own mandatory health insurance plan that most Chinese international students must purchase. The two largest mandatory insurance plans required by universities are Blue Cross and Desjardins Securité financière.

You will need to contact your school to see what type of insurance is available and whether it is mandatory. If they use the Blue Cross and Desjardins Securité financière insurance plans, they are modeled after the national health care plan called the Quebec Assurance maladie (RAMQ Medicare). Be sure to find out the benefits of the plan and check coverage to make sure that you will covered if you will be traveling.

Posted by Jennifer Frankel

Jennifer is the International Director at International Student Insurance. Jennifer is a graduate of the University of Florida where she holds a Masters in International Business and a Bachelors of Science in Business Administration. She has lived and worked abroad in Mexico, Chile, Costa Rica and England, and traveled extensively in South America, Europe and Asia.