Eligibility and Registration

Eligibility

To be eligible for New Brunswick Medicare coverage you must be:

• a Canadian citizen or be legally entitled to remain in Canada;
• a resident who makes his/her permanent and principal home in New Brunswick

A “resident” means a person lawfully entitled to be or to remain in Canada, who makes his home and is ordinarily present in New Brunswick, but does not include a tourist, transient or visitor to the Province.

The following individuals are not eligible for coverage:

• regular members of the R.C.M.P. and the Canadian Armed Forces, (however members of their families are eligible);
• tourists and visitors to the province;
• transients;
• students from another province or on student visas; and
• inmates of federal penitentiaries.

Maintaining a dwelling, owning property in the province of New Brunswick or paying New Brunswick property or income tax does not mean you are eligible for insured physician or hospital services under the New Brunswick Medicare Plan.

Registration

An application for registration form is available from the offices of Service New Brunswick (SNB). A separate form should be completed for any dependent who has reached a nineteenth birthday.

Applications are assessed on an individual basis and other documents may be requested to verify eligibility.

Once a completed application form is received from new registrants and their eligibility is established, a letter indicating actual start date of coverage is issued. A valid New Brunswick Medicare card is issued and mailed shortly thereafter.

If you have moved to New Brunswick, you may be eligible for New Brunswick Medicare coverage on the first day of the third month following the month you have established permanent residence in New Brunswick. For example, if you moved to New Brunswick on July 20, the month of July will count as the first month, with August and September as the following two. In this case, coverage would begin October 1.

The three month waiting period is legislated under New Brunswick’s Medical Services Payment Act and no exemptions can be made.

Your New Brunswick Medicare card has an expiry date. Three months before this date, you will receive a “Notice of Expiry” form which you must complete, sign and return to New Brunswick Medicare. Once the form is received and no additional information is required, coverage will be renewed and a new card sent out with a new expiry date.

New Brunswick Medicare has the right to terminate your coverage or adjust your card’s expiry date at any time.