The first federal budget delivered by the Carney government announced significant cuts to services provided by Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).
Starting in May of this year, resettled refugees and asylum claimants will have to pay part of the costs of services like emergency dental care, prescription drugs, and incontinence and diabetic supplies.
The government’s goal is to cut the amount it pays to private insurer Medavie Blue Cross to insure vulnerable people who are not eligible for provincial or territorial programs. By forcing these copayments, it expects to save $358M in the next two years.
What is the Interim Federal Health Program?
Refugees and refugee claimants are not eligible for provincial and territorial health insurance and social assistance programs. Refugee claimants cannot access any provincial health care or social assistance plans while they wait for a determination on their case—which may take years. Approved refugees may have to wait three months before they can access health care, and a year before they can access social assistance programs.
The Interim Federal Health Program (IFHP) is a federal plan to provide them with essential services while their residency status is resolved. It provides health coverage comparable to provincial and territorial health insurance and social assistance plans. The changes announced by the Carney government will require refugees and refugee claimants to pay 30% of the costs of supplemental coverage and a $4 prescription drugs copayment.
The impact of cutting health care coverage
Refugee claimants do not generally have savings or stable incomes. Although they can apply for a work permit, such permits are not guaranteed. When they are allowed to work, refugee claimants often navigate language and employment barriers that make it difficult to find well-paying jobs. They also face multiple expenses related to the uncertainty of their residency status: immigration lawyers, application fees, professional certification fees, and language training, among others.
These cuts to the IFHP will cause unnecessary suffering. It is unlikely that refugees and refugee claimants will find $358M to make the copayments. As a CCPA blog recently put it, they are more likely to avoid treatment for dental issues, and neglect prescriptions, hearing aids and diabetes supplies. These cuts will translate into additional barriers to employment and likely worse health outcomes, both of which will be more expensive in the long term.
Cost cutting costs more
It is true that the cost of the program has increased over the last few years. However, this is not due to refugee claimants receiving expensive services, as Conservative and Bloc politicians have insinuated. In fact, the IFHP’s annual costs per person is “well below” the cost of healthcare for the average Canadian on a provincial public plan.
Instead, the increased costs are the result of federal failure to process claims. Refugee claimants can wait years for a determination, meaning they are accessing the IFHP for longer. And as the backlog of claims grows, more people are added to the program.
The federal government could direct more resources to clear up the backlog, but it is instead cutting the workforce that processes refugee claims. In the absence of adequate processing capacity, the number of people using the federal program, and the length of time they use it for, will increase. The severity of health issues to be covered may also increase if people cannot afford timely care. All of these will result in more, rather than less federal expense.
Taking a wrecking ball to the system
As the Carney government is planning to transfer health care costs to refugees and cut processing capacity, it is also proposing sweeping immigration changes that undermine the rights and protections of migrants and refugees. And it is doing so under the guise of national security.
Bill C-12, the Strengthening Canada’s Immigration System and Borders Act, will severely limit the ability of people to claim asylum in Canada. It will, for example, force asylum seekers to make a claim within one year of arriving in Canada. International students and temporary residents living in Canada may not be able to claim asylum if there are urgent or dangerous changes in their home country or country of origin more than a year after their arrival.
No one can predict when a war, genocide or climate crises will arise. Limiting asylum claims to one year after entering Canada, including retroactively, is detached from reality and cruel. It is also a violation of international law. These changes and others will undermine the integrity and fairness of the refugee system.
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