RAMQ Card and Daycare for a Grandchild in Quebec Kinship Care

Two of the most common institutional walls kinship caregivers hit in the first weeks are health coverage and daycare. The child needs to see a doctor, and you need childcare so you can work. Both require paperwork that informal caregivers often do not have.

RAMQ Health Coverage: What the Card Requires

Eligible Quebec residents are covered under the Régie de l'assurance maladie du Québec (RAMQ), which issues an individual card for each insured person. A parent's card is used for a child under one who has not yet received their own card.

With a tutorship judgment: You have legal authority over the child's person, including health decisions. Contact RAMQ about its process for updating the child's file and provide a certified copy of the judgment as proof of your authority.

Without a tutorship judgment: Ask RAMQ which documents it accepts for the specific request. A parent's authorization may help with some requests, but it is not itself a tutorship judgment.

Urgent medical care: RAMQ says insured persons requiring urgent care do not have to present their health card. This concerns the card requirement, not who may consent to treatment. For non-emergency care, ask the provider what consent and authority documents it needs.

Medical Decision-Making Authority

A tutor to the person holds legal authority to consent to medical and dental treatment, enroll the child under the tutor's RAMQ coverage, and access the child's medical records. Without tutorship, your authority depends on what the parent has delegated — and a delegation can be revoked at any time.

For a specific treatment, ask the provider who must consent and what authorization it accepts. A parental authorization letter does not appoint you as the child's tutor.

Daycare Enrollment

For CPEs and subsidized day care centres, families use Quebec's Childcare Services Registration Portal (formerly La Place 0-5) to create a family file, add a file for a born child, and submit admission requests. Admission processes for other services can differ.

With tutorship: You can present the judgment as proof of your authority; confirm with the portal or childcare service how to create or update the family file for an appointed tutor. In 2026, the reduced contribution at a subsidized childcare service is $9.65 per day; it is not calculated from household income.

Without tutorship: Contact the parent and childcare service to confirm who can submit or update the child's registration and what proof is needed. The reduced contribution at subsidized childcare is a set rate; family income is relevant to tax assistance for non-subsidized childcare costs.

Non-subsidized daycare uses its own client pool and can choose which children to admit. Contact the provider directly to ask who can make the admission request and what authority documents it accepts.

The Practical Sequence

For most kinship caregivers, the practical order is:

1. Ask the parent for the child's own RAMQ card, or look for it in the child's records
2. Present a valid card for covered services; RAMQ says insured persons requiring urgent care can receive care without showing it
3. Pursue tutorship to establish formal authority
4. Once the judgment is in hand, contact RAMQ and the childcare service or portal to confirm how to update the child's records and provide proof of authority

If the parent is unavailable and the child has no RAMQ card, contact RAMQ to ask which registration or replacement steps apply and what documents are required.

The Quebec Tutorship and Kinship Care Guide includes a step-by-step institutional navigation section covering RAMQ, school enrollment, daycare, and the benefit applications that follow a tutorship judgment.

See more Quebec guides →