Before you start

Permanent resident, CSQ holder, or a work permit of sufficient duration
Proof of Quebec residency
Identity documents for every family member
Private interim insurance, unless a social security agreement waives the waiting period

Step-by-step

1
Check the social security agreement list before you fly
Quebec holds agreements with a number of countries, France's being the best known, that waive the three-month waiting period for their nationals. If yours is on the list you obtain a form from your home social security institution before departure and cover begins on arrival. Five minutes of checking, and it is worth real money and real risk.
OnlineWho: YouBefore departure
2
Buy interim private cover if no agreement applies
The gap is genuinely uninsured and Canadian medical costs without coverage are high. Interim policies are cheap against the risk and considerably easier to arrange before you leave than after you land.
OnlineWho: YouBefore departure
3
Register with RAMQ on arrival
Registration is done with your immigration documents and proof of a Quebec address; the card follows by mail. Register everyone in the household at once rather than adding people later.
In personWho: YouWeek 1
4
Sort prescription drug insurance, which is compulsory here
Every Quebec resident must be covered for prescription drugs. If your employer or professional order offers a plan you are required to join it; if not, you are enrolled in the public RAMQ plan and the premium is calculated and collected through your Quebec tax return. There is no opting out.
Via employerWho: You
5
Register with the Guichet d'accès à un médecin de famille immediately
Quebec has a serious shortage of family physicians and the provincial access point is the formal queue. Your position depends on when you joined it, not on when you develop a need. Do this in week one, before you have any medical issue at all.
OnlineWho: YouWeek 1
6
Learn how to use the GAP and your local CLSC
The Guichet d'accès à la première ligne — reached through 811 — books people without a family doctor into a nurse or physician appointment rather than leaving the emergency room as the only option. CLSCs are public neighbourhood health centres handling vaccination, nursing and prenatal care, and they are a Quebec institution the rest of Canada does not have.
Mobile appWho: You

Documents you’ll need

Passport and immigration document
Proof of Quebec address
Social security agreement form, where applicable
RAMQ card, once issued
Prescription and medical records from your previous country

Things most newcomers don’t know

If you are French, Belgian or from another agreement country, the three-month wait does not apply to you at all.

Quebec's social security agreements waive the waiting period for nationals of a number of countries. You collect a form from your home institution before leaving and coverage starts the day you arrive. A great many eligible people buy private insurance they never needed, and a great many others assume an agreement exists when it does not and arrive genuinely uninsured. Check the list rather than the forum.

Source: RAMQ

The 811 line is two services, and the second one is the useful one.

Everyone learns that 811 is Info-Santé, the 24-hour nurse line. The same number also reaches the Guichet d'accès à la première ligne, which books people without a family doctor into an actual appointment. Newcomers who only know about Info-Santé end up in an emergency department for things that a GAP appointment handles in a morning.

Source: Santé Québec

Prescription drug insurance is compulsory in Quebec, which is unique in Canada.

Cover through an employer or professional-order plan where one exists, and through the public RAMQ plan otherwise. You do not opt out. People on the public plan see the premium appear as a line on their Quebec tax return at filing time, having never filled a prescription, and are consistently surprised by it.

Source: RAMQ

English-language health services exist here but they are concentrated in one institution.

Unlike Montreal, Québec City has no network of anglophone hospitals. Jeffery Hale – Saint Brigid's is the historic English-language health and social services institution for the region and remains the main point of access for care in English, alongside the community organisation Voice of English-speaking Québec. Knowing that before an emergency, rather than during one, is worth the ten minutes.

Source: community-reported

Common mistakes to avoid

Buying private cover without first checking whether an agreement waives the wait.
Assuming your country has such an agreement when it does not, and arriving uninsured.
Waiting until you need a doctor to join the family-physician queue.
Using the emergency department for what the GAP would have booked in a morning.
Not joining an employer drug plan and being surprised by the public premium at tax time.
Assuming dental, vision and ambulance transport are covered — none of them are.

Some of this may be out of date. Spotted something inaccurate? Help us keep it right for the next newcomer.

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