Touring - insurace for touring

since in graduate from school this May and my trip starts this June, i may no longer be under my parents insurace plan. what sort of short-term minimum health insurace plan would you all recommend for a tour that is planning to last about 4-5 months?

what do you all think about property insurce? does anyone insure thier bike and other gear incase of theft/damage during the trip?

also, what is the best way to carry money while on an extended tour? i am from the U.S., so should i carry travelers checks while in canada, or will a debit card work okay? should i carry a big wad of cash at all times? <-- hopefully i wouldn't be this dumb! what about paying for everything with a credit card for convenience sake?

thanks for the info,
this forum is really helping me to plan this trip this summer.

Canada has much better debit card services than the US. You can use a debit almost anywhere including convience stores.
For sure get health insurance unless you enjoy the thoguht of backruptcy-inducing medical bills.

Here in Canada, I get both my health insurance and my bicycle insurance through CAA (Canadian Automobile Association). You might check with AAA for the same thing.

As for the debit card thing ... like luke.harrison says, you can use them almost everywhere! It's rare to find a place where you would not be able to use your debit card. However, a few of those places do still exist ... they are usually very small stores in very small towns. So it is a good idea to carry some cash at all times, just in case ... at least enough to buy your groceries for the day, and pay for a campsite. Also before you travel, stop by your bank and have a chat with the customer service people to make sure you can use your card everywhere you go. They'll explain it, but basically the symbols on the bottom of your card need to match the bank machines you use.

As for traveller's cheques, I wouldn't bother. In the cities you might be able to use them all right, but I used to use them many years ago and in some small towns they were refused because the people weren't sure what they were ... and they've become rarer since then!