As a Canadian, I find that difficult to believe. Even more difficult to believe that your friend didn't get travel health insurance and carry proof of it while hiking. That's pretty reckless.
Do you really find it harder to believe a tourist wouldn't have travel health insurance? I've never heard of anyone buying that for a day trip to Canada. And just generally it's rare in my experience for people to buy insurance unless it's required in some way. Maybe that is an American phenomenon though.
By contrast, I know few Canadians who would set foot in the USA for one day without travel health insurance. We've all heard the story about the Canadian couple who went to Hawaii on their honeymoon and delivered a baby (prematurely) there, and it cost them 1 million in hospital fees because their coverage wasn't sufficient. And they did have insurance, it just didn't cover baby deliveries.
It sounds like it was the Canadian insurance provider who screwed them, though. They said[2] that since she had a bladder infection prior to getting the travel insurance, it was a pre-existing condition and therefore wasn't covered. So basically, if you get your travel insurance and come across the border, don't expect it to cover anything like a heart attack, an abcessed tooth, a prescription refill, etc.
> As a Canadian, I find that difficult to believe.
As someone who lived in Canada for 10 years, I can understand that. The blindness Canadians have to the severe problems in their own healthcare system is amazing. Take a look at the massive problems in autism care in Canada. Let me put it this way, it was cheaper (free), faster, and superior in every way in the US as opposed to Canada, where it was far more expensive, years in waiting times, and in the end got no autism assistance. To be fair, this was back in 2011 when we finally left, but having kept an eye on the system (what with having family there still), it hasn't really improved.
As a Canadian, I find it easy to believe. Go and ask some of the hospitals just across the border from Detroit. They have gotten bent over many times by Americans who come over to Windsor, get injured (usually related to the lower drinking age), show up in the ER, then bail when it comes time for the bill.
