do canadian hospitals not send foreigners a bill?
it seems like this sort of issue would've come up long before now.
It may have changed, but it used to be standard not to.
I remember a news article from about 15 years ago where doctors at a Vancouver hospital were unhappy about it. Not because they were treating the sick traveler for free, but because some stupid regulation meant that he had to remain in an ER bed rather than moving him to a normal hospital bed and freeing the space for anyone else who might need it.
That said, as an American in Alberta I can confirm for sure that they'll make you pay up front here too.
Cost out of pocket was much, much lower than it would be in the US, but certainly not trivial.
Source: Live in BC, foreign relatives had medical treatment while visiting.
Canada would probably need to build a wall to prevent this.
It's fairly trivial (conceptually) to close the border to non-commercial traffic while allowing commercial traffic through, given that both are separated physically at the border and you need paperwork to go through the commercial lane anyway.
> Unless they think they have significantly fewer cases than the United States, it doesn't make sense to block travelers.
Absolutely, given that Washington has mismanaged the crisis, and in the US there is often a monetary cost for even seeing a primary care physician, plus no mandated sick or vacation days, and the numbers so far reflect this.
The biggest concern, in my opinion, would be people who try to come to Canada in the hopes that they can get sick here and recover somewhere that isn't going to bankrupt them as a result. Not that I want our southern neighbours to die in the streets while we lounge in relative medical luxury, but risking overloading both systems would be catastrophic for everyone.