What is a health insurance waiting period?
When your health insurance coverage starts, there may be a period of time when you aren’t able to use some (or all) of its benefits. This can apply to treatment for certain conditions or certain services, like dental care.
For example, let’s say your plan has a 30-day waiting period for dental coverage. If you went to the dentist on day 5 of your policy being in effect and tried to claim an expense that would ordinarily be eligible – like a cavity filling, perhaps – that claim would be denied.
If you incurred that exact same expense – meaning you had the actual filling done after the 30 days were up, not that you just waited to claim it - your claim would be eligible to be accepted.
A waiting period can sometimes also be called a “qualifying period.”
How long is a waiting period, usually?
It can vary, but anywhere between 30 days and 3 months is fairly standard.
Can you reduce your waiting period?
In some circumstances, you may be able to get a waiver of the waiting period. Canada Life’s personal insurance plans, for example, waive the 30-day waiting period for routine dental if you’ve had other dental coverage within the last 60 days. (Major dental coverage, however, usually can’t have the waiting period waived.)