Virtual Care in Canada: Free Provincial Options vs Paid Apps and What Each Costs

A virtual visit is a phone or video appointment. Whether you pay depends on who is billing, not on the fact that you stayed home. This page opens the Ontario public options that were actually read, then describes paid apps by type. No brand is named. No subscription price is printed, because none was taken from a dated official page. Other provinces' virtual-care pages were not opened, so they are not given a coverage sentence or a fee. If the problem is a minor ailment a pharmacist can assess in Ontario, start with the pharmacist minor-ailments guide before you pay an app.

What provincial health plans cover for virtual visits (by province, sourced)

Only Ontario pages were opened. Health811's virtual urgent care page, updated 26 June 2025, says Ontario residents in each of six regions can use Ontario Health-approved virtual urgent care with a nurse practitioner. It is for urgent conditions that are not life-threatening, for people who do not have a primary-care provider or do not have another timely option such as an appointment or a walk-in clinic. The page's examples are a cold, a localized rash, and a minor urinary problem or upset stomach. You reach it by a referral from a Health811 registered nurse: call 811, use TTY 711, use chat, or use the symptom tool, then book. If symptoms worsen, the page points you to an emergency department, urgent care, or 911. A spotlight page says the clinics are funded by the Ontario government and run by Ontario Health Teams, hospitals, or community health centres. No patient fee is printed on those pages, and none is added here.

A separate Ontario physician-billing note, Virtual Care 1, says that as of 1 December 2022 video visits left the Ontario Virtual Care Program and certain video and telephone services are insured under OHIP. That sentence is about how a physician bills. It does not say every virtual visit costs the patient nothing. An insured person whose own doctor bills OHIP for a covered video or phone visit is in a different product from a paid app. Before you join the call, ask the clinic whether the visit is billed to OHIP or billed to you. A private invoice for a virtual visit that was not insured is the kind of bill described in the uninsured fees guide.

British Columbia, Alberta, Quebec, and the other provinces are absent from the table on purpose. Their virtual-care pages were not opened. Call the number your province publishes, and read that page, before you treat Ontario's 811 pathway as national.

Paid virtual care apps: subscriptions, per-visit fees and what's included

Paid virtual care, as a type, is either a subscription that covers a period of access or a charge for each visit. Some products combine both: a membership, then an extra amount if you actually book. What is included varies. A visit might be the whole product. Messaging, a follow-up, or a prescription might be included, or they might be a second charge. No brand page with a dated price was opened, so this article does not print a monthly fee, a per-visit fee, or a comparison. Ask three questions in writing: the price in dollars, what the price includes, and whether you see the same clinician next time.

A paid app does not become an OHIP service because the clinician is in Canada. If the receipt says you paid the company, you paid the company. Keep it if you later test the amount against the medical expense tax credit. The credit's rules are on the medical-expense guide, and this page does not repeat the threshold.

Virtual care through workplace benefits and EAPs

A workplace booklet or an employee-assistance program can include a virtual visit with the plan's own clinicians. That visit is paid, or part-paid, by the employer according to the booklet. No booklet was opened, so no session count, no per-visit cap, and no list of covered specialties is printed. Read the certificate before you subscribe to an app you would be paying twice for. How a health spending account at work interacts with eligible health bills is the employer health spending account guide. Drug claims that follow a visit, including whether the plan requires a specific pharmacy, are the workplace drug coverage guide.

An employee-assistance conversation is often short-term and is not your family doctor's chart. If the issue is ongoing counselling, or if you are in crisis, call or text 9-8-8, the suicide crisis helpline, and use the therapy guide for what a course of counselling can cost. Do not treat a virtual urgent-care visit as a substitute for that help.

What virtual care can't do: exams, some prescriptions, continuity

A video visit cannot do a hands-on exam. Anything that needs a stethoscope on your chest, a swab, or a look at a joint the camera cannot see properly has to move to a clinic. Continuity is a separate limit. It is high when the same clinician, or the same clinic chart, carries the history. It is low when each booking assigns a new clinician who sees you once. The chart on this page places option types on that axis. It is a description of the type, not a score for a named company.

Prescribing is a decision the clinician makes on the visit. No statute opened for this article says a virtual visit can never result in a prescription, so this page does not say that. Ontario's drug-coverage page does say a pharmacist cannot transfer a prescription for a controlled drug, a controlled-drug preparation, or a narcotic between Ontario pharmacies. The page's examples include oxycodone, Dilaudid, Xanax, and diazepam. If that is the medicine you need, ask before you book whether the visit can deal with it. A paid app that cannot is the wrong door, even at a low advertised price. Cash fees you pay anyway are the uninsured fees guide.

Health811 and other free nurse lines

Health811 is the Ontario nurse line this page opened. Call 811. TTY is 711. Live chat is on the symptom-assessment page, which was updated 11 August 2026. That page says to call 911 for a medical emergency. Symptom assessment is described as fast, free, and anonymous. A registered nurse can refer you onward, including to virtual urgent care when you are in a region the virtual urgent care page covers and you do not have a timely alternative. The nurse line is advice and a route to the next service. It is not your ongoing chart.

Other provinces publish their own nurse-line numbers. Those pages were not opened, so this article does not list them and does not call them free by assumption. Use the number printed by your province.

Choosing an option: a decision table

Match the need to the payer first. A free public route that fits the problem beats a subscription you have not priced. A paid type is reasonable when no public route is available and you know the fee. The table leaves the fee column blank on purpose.