Canada’s health care system is based on the principles of comprehensiveness, universality, portability, public administration and accessibility. But, many people are excluded from access to the healthcare they need because they are not eligible for provincial health insurance. Every year, thousands of people come to Canada, in particular to Ontario, Canada’s economic hub.
Canada invites these groups to contribute to our economy (for example, as permanent immigrants or under the Temporary Foreign Worker scheme). Their contributions are immense, yet they are denied access to health care.
In February, 2010, Wellesley Institute, in partnership with Women’s College Hospital, York University, and Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing University of Toronto convened the first-ever “Research Conference on Healthcare for the Undocumented and Uninsured”. Innovative research was presented that identified the most vulnerable groups, analyzed the harmful impact on their health of being denied access, and set out organizational and policy directions to address these barriers.
Organizing material on page
Presentations by Researchers:
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- Investigation of the impact of patient insurance status on the delivery of health care to uninsured patients visiting the St. Joseph’s Health Centre Emergency Department
- Access to healthcare for the uninsured and undocumented in Canada
- Providing healthcare to Toronto immigrants with precarious status
- Litigating access to healthcare for the undocumented
- Providing care to the medically uninsured obstetrical patient: A chart review
- Healthcare access for migrants with a precarious migration status in Montreal
- Exploring equity and syndemics in diabetes mellitus (Type 2) management of non-status women
- Liminality and mental well-being among non-status immigrants in Toronto
- The cost of invisibility: The psychosocial impact of falling out of status
- Undocumented pregnant women: What does the literature tell us?
- Overcoming barriers to health care through Identification Replacement Programs
- Providing obstetric care to the medically uninsured: The patient’s perspective
- Women living without legal immigration status: health consequences and barriers to healthcare
Summary presentation to Women’s College Network on the Uninsured (Bob Gardner)