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I will be spending the next four months in Toronto, Canada on an academic sabbatical, during which period I will have health coverage through my US employer. I have a work permit to do academic research in Canada. I am also diabetic.

My insurance will cover 90 days of insulin at a time, so one solution is to bring 90 days with me and return to the US for another 90 days shortly before that runs out. It would certainly be more convenient to purchase it in Canada.

What must one do to get a prescription from a US doctor to a Canadian pharmacy which will be covered by American insurance?

EDIT Having done some more research, it looks like I need to have a Canadian doctor co-sign the prescription and there are a lot of regulations about this. Is this something which is easy to arrange?

It is very hard to search for this, because I am swamped by information about Canadian online pharmacies, and people buying drugs to take back to the USA.

David E Speyer
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  • The difficulty may not be what it takes to fill the prescription there, but that your US insurer may not accept a claim or reimburse you. You could visit a phamacist early in your stay, with script and work permit, to start the process; the cost to you might be as little as your US co-pay. If that doesn't work, a day trip to Buffalo would, pre-arranging to get a refill. – Giorgio Aug 07 '16 at 14:56
  • You will need a prescription from a Canadian doctor. A walk-in health clinic is a way to see one when you lack a family doctor, though these aren't very time efficient. Neither the clinic nor the pharmacy is likely to be able to bill your insurer directly so you may need to pay upfront (the costs should be modest by US standards) and submit the bills yourself (my US expat insurance mostly worked that way). As an alternative, Niagara Falls, NY is only about a 90 minute drive. – Dennis Aug 07 '16 at 18:53
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    Lewiston NY is probably the closest place to visit from Toronto. If you can go fairly early on a weekday you can easily be there and back in a morning, and if you fill up there the difference in gas price will pay for maybe half the trip. I recommend stopping for a coffee and scone at Orange Cat. – Spehro Pefhany Aug 10 '16 at 18:54
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    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it should be migrated to Travel.SE – JonathanReez Oct 27 '16 at 14:53
  • @JonathanReez unfortunately it's too old to be migrated :/ – Mark Mayo Oct 27 '16 at 22:51

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