To retain your health insurance coverage, you must be present in Québec 183 days or more per calendar year (January 1 to December 31). Absences of 21 consecutive days or less are not tallied, nor are the days of departure and return. Once every seven years, persons may leave Québec for 183 days or more during a calendar year. In this special circumstance the provincial health ministry must be notified before your departure and you must also complete the form entitled Temporary Departure from Québec, available from the Régie.
According to the SAAQ, if you have a residence outside of Québec, you must live and ordinarily be in Québec for at least 183 days of the year to be covered by the Québec automobile insurance plan.
While the RAMQ permits residents an unlimited number of absences outside of Québec as long as they do not exceed 21 consecutive days, the SAAQ does not have a similar provision. It is important for our members to keep these differences in mind to ensure that they remain covered by both the RAMQ and the SAAQ. We strongly recommend that any member covered by the SAAQ, who exceeds the 183 day residency requirement, contact the SAAQ directly in order to verify their status.
CSA representatives will be working with the Québec government to resolve this discrepancy. Updates on this issue will be featured in CSANews.
