Travel Health Insurance Committee: Challenges and progress with the sale of travel health insurance

With travel agents expressing frustration of having to deal with the different provincial requirements to sell travel health insurance to their clients, 2014 was the year that ACTA formed a National Insurance Committee and subsequent strategy to work toward a national solution that we hope will establish consistency in licensing requirements for the sale of travel insurance. This uniform national licensing standard could include a national exam instead of the different provincial exams that exist today. We are also working with the Travel Health Insurance Association of Canada (or THIA) who share a similar mandate. The bottom line is that we want travel agents to have the ability to sell travel insurance to all clients regardless of the province of residence without having the headache of dealing with each provincial licensing body. The situation is complex and while there may be no simple solutions, the new Committee has been tasked to explore options for achieve our goal.

As we continue to discuss the issue with the different provincial regulators it was motivating to hear of the recent efforts at ASTA starting to pay off after five years of pressure. ACTA will remain focused and on task while we continue to watch the developments accross our borders.