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My girlfriend is going to be staying with me in the USA for a few months shortly. She is a Canadian citizen.
I would like to get some advice on what kind of Medical insurance (if any) we should be purchasing for her. Since we will be doing things like 4-wheeling it would be nice to be confident she is protected if something bad were to happen.
Should we purchase trip medical insurance? What does the Canadian health-care system cover?
Check her employer's medical coverage. Mine covers trips up to 21 days, others may be more generous. Also, check her credit card - if she buys the plane tickets on the card she may end up covered as a result of that.
To answer the second part of your question, what does Canadian health care provide, depends on your province - health care is a provincial thing. But to give you Ontario as an example, there is very rudimentary coverage. The online advice from the Ontario government says things like:
The Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) only covers emergency health services at very limited rates. For example, an outpatient visit to a U.S. emergency room may cost thousands of dollars for the duration of your care, however OHIP will only reimburse up to a total of $50.00 CDN per day for this service regardless of the severity of the situation. If you plan to travel outside of Ontario, it is strongly recommended that you obtain additional private medical insurance and fully understand what your policy covers.
That emphasis, by the way, is in the original. There is also a fact sheet which is even gloomier. I doubt the answer will be remarkably different if she lives in another province.
And if what @Kate Gregory suggested doesn't work you can always buy travel insurance from sites like:
There is actually a lot of different sites that offer travel insurance including medical.
