Nearly two weeks have passed since the federal government cut health benefits for many refugees, and the real costs are beginning to show.
Dr. Anna Banerji, a specialist in children’s infectious diseases at St. Joseph’s and St. Michael’s hospitals, has gone public with a case of a four-and-a-half-year-old refugee girl who almost died of meningitis prior to the cuts to the Interim Federal Health Program. According to Dr. Banerji, if the girl were to arrive in an emergency department today she would have no health benefits and, if the meningitis was not treated and progressed, she could lose limbs, develop severe brain damage, or even die.
Positive stories have also emerged, including a Winnipeg optical clinic that donated glasses to a refugee child, claiming that, “it just seemed like the right thing to do.” While it is commendable for health professionals to donate their time and resources, it is no substitute for basic health care access for refugees.
On the eve of the cuts to the IFHP, Citizenship and Immigration Canada’s website was quietly updated and supplementary health benefits – drug, dental, and vision – were reinstated for government-assisted refugees. Minister Kenney called this change a “clarification.” While the reinstatement of these benefits was positive, refugees in the remaining 11 categories still lack basic health care access.
Health care professionals have established a Refugee Health Outcome Monitoring and Evaluation System that will monitor the effects of changes to the Interim Federal Health Program on adverse health outcomes experienced by refugees. This is an important tool for health care providers to provide qualitative data about real cases and preventable outcomes of the cuts to health benefits.
Minister Kenney has recently indicated, via Twitter (here, here, here, and here), that he intends to target Roma refugee claimants from Hungary because of their low claim acceptance rates when he names “safe” countries of origin. However “safe” Hungary may be in general, the persistent and systemic discrimination Roma people face there and in other European countries has been well documented. Critics argue that withholding basic health care from refugees is a very crude and cruel lever to regulate immigration and is not a fair or equitable way to address perceived problems in the refugee claims system.
The Wellesley Institute will work with provider and community partners to monitor the effect of cuts to the IFHP and will provide updates. In the meantime, read our health equity impact assessment, The Real Cost of Cutting Refugee Health Benefits.
It is the direct experience of our volunteer work
With GARS that their IFH was NOT reinstated
Today in Vancouver multiple service provider/ organizations who would have normally provided emerg dental care , eye exams, glasses are not accepting GARS as clients
They have told us directly that although kenney has
made media statements. Clarifying that Gars were not supposed to be included in cuts – they cannot reverse their new policies until they
Each hear otherwise directly from the ministers office
A little GAR girl was denied emerg dental care
She has.been in Canada 3 weeks now
She is also being denied an eye exam
Other GARs have had. Riti al prescription. Coverage “denied”
We have spoken with minister Kenneys assistant who told us to “put it on a visa”
We have spoken with the provincial health
Ministers office- they will not make a statement until Kenneys office responds to their request for clarification on the cuts
As of yesterday they had not yet heard from Kenneys office
Yesterday we took a GAR for life saving kidney removal surgery
Lucky mom had been here over the one year IFH and is covered Provincially
She would like to know why other members of her culture are. Wing discriminated against
We are appalled and stand against any and all divisive, racist , discriminatory policies which harken back to the ” exclusionary political leagues which created the head tax
I feel like Canada has regressed a 100 years on their regard for human rights under Harper and his Reform Artists
Kara
Co-founder and director of Eka Cooperative for co-cultured communities
Thanks for your comment, Kara.
You’ve raised a really important point that communication from Citizenship and Immigration Canada and Minister Kenney has not be clear or consistent. The consequence of this is that providers are reluctant to provide care if they don’t know the status of patients who are refugees, and this leads to avoidable negative health outcomes.
If you have access to the dentist or optometrist who did not provide care to the GAR girl, it would be great if you could get them to complete the Refugee Health Outcome Monitoring and Evaluation form – this is exactly the kind of case that the organizers are looking to document.
Thanks for this Kara,
If you can’t get the providers to do this, please fill it in yourself. The link is http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/66KPGVS
Meb Rashid for Canadian Doctors for Refugee Care