Oh another question for Ottawa, I assume if we leave before 25 years in we lose out on the health care plan and dental plan until the pension kicks in at 60. I'm not sure how far off 45 is for you but do you have any supplemental plans in mind until 60?
Thanks.
You are correct. We don't get back in on the health care plan until 60. Good question - I've been looking into the possibility of whether or not supplemental makes sense. In general, most things are covered under OHIP. Apart from prescriptions and the other benefits under the pshcp such as vision, physiotherapy etc. At this time we don't really have any prescriptions, apart from the odd penicillin. We do utilize the vision, sometimes physiotherapy.
Just looking at the math, based on what we use now:
Vision benefit = $275 each every two years (i.e. $275 annually)
Various physio/massage/etc benefit = Maybe $400 per year - mostly due to work stress!
Prescriptions = ???
Attached below are a table of eligible expenses that we sometimes use and a table of total benefit areas. I would estimate that we wouldn't use more than $1000 worth of medical-related benefits. Based on current health only of course. The big wild card is if you have some time of illness that requires high cost prescription drugs etc. So, you have to ask yourself what is the likelihood of this based on personal history, family history and current health?
Our dental coverage provides for (I think) checkup every 9 months (we would extend to once per year between 45 and 60). Just the standard checkups for 2 adults/child would cost something like $500 per year. Obviously things can get more expensive with issues like root canals/cavities etc. I personally haven't had any issues since the wisdom teeth came out at 18. But, my wife has had some fairly hefty bills of $1,000 to $2,000 a couple of times! Also, it is possible that our child would require orthodontics. So, orthodontics could be a $7,000 hit. I see this as the biggest area of uncertainty wrt financial outlay. Our current dental plan pays most of these costs.
At this time I haven't done too much investigation into coverage for either health or dental. However, I think premiums for a family may be in the $400 monthly range. At that rate, it wouldn't make sense to pay $5,000 every year to maybe recoup $2,000. At this time we are tending towards paying out of pocket. There is some ability to claim on expenses:
http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/medical/. The amount you get back in tax credit depends on net income.
so....this is probably worth a whole topic for Canadian early retirees...there are quite a few out there that have probably done some extensive research that would be willing to fill in this knowledge gap!!