Your coverage has three layers. Most gaps hide in the seams.

Layer 1 — The government baseline

What exists whether or not you buy a policy. It's real, and thinner than most people assume.

• Provincial health care pays for medically necessary treatment inside Canada — but reimburses only small fixed amounts out of country.
• CPP Disability — basic $610.46/mo, average for new beneficiaries $1,234.68/mo, maximum $1,741.20/mo. A floor, not income replacement, and most group LTD plans offset it.
• EI sickness — up to 26 weeks at 55% of insurable earnings, capped at $729.00/week. A short bridge.
• CPP survivor & death benefits — a one-time $2,500.00 death benefit plus a modest survivor pension.
• Workers' compensation — work-related injury and illness only.

The seam: Layer 1 barely travels, replaces only a fraction of income, and much of it depends on eligibility rules you can't assume you'll meet.

Layer 2 — Workplace / group benefits

If you're employed, usually your biggest chunk of coverage — and the one you've read the least. Typically some group life (often 1–2× salary), LTD, sometimes STD, critical illness, and extended health/dental.

The catches: group life is a small multiple of salary and ends when the job ends; LTD often switches to any-occupation around month 24; employer-paid LTD is taxable; coverage is rarely portable.

The seam: Layer 2 is generous while you're employed and healthy and evaporates exactly when you might need it most. Size it with the Disability Gap tool.

Layer 3 — Personal policies

The layer you control. Its job is to fill the specific gaps Layers 1 and 2 leave — no more. Personal term life, personal disability, critical illness, home/condo/tenant, auto, and travel medical. Portable, in your control, priced to your health today.

The seam: the risk here is buying by default — duplicating what you already have, or over-insuring a need that's actually falling. That's what our calculators and Beast Policy Organizer are for.