Group Benefits trends – Emergency out-of-country medical claims

Manulife saw a steep drop in Emergency out-of-country medical claims in 2021 according to Jeff Alcock, Manulife Group Benefits Head of Claim and Administration Operations.

“The three-month average dropped to 27% of what we saw in 2019 for emergency out-of-country medical claims,” Alcock said. “Lower claim volumes persisted through July.”

Alcock said that’s not surprising considering fewer Canadians were travelling abroad¹. 

But the U.S. opened its land border to fully vaccinated Canadian travellers on Nov. 8. Alcock expects the claims trend will change as travel to the U.S. picks up.

“We are paying really close attention to these claims this fall to see what snow-birds and travellers’ level of comfort will be. We do expect there will be some increase,” Alcock said. “We have to wait and see how people will respond to balancing that desire to travel and the health risks that continue to persist.”

Check out these international travel tips if you and your members have out-of-country medical coverage.

If you would like to know more about adding out-of-country medical coverage to your plan, please contact your advisors and/or Manulife representative.

You can also check out this article for more information on plan member behaviour during the pandemic.

¹ CBSA reported volume at all border crossing of Canadian travellers

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