New Costs for Refugee Health Care Raise Concerns

Many clients that Dr. Allison Henderson sees at the Refugee Health Clinic in London, Ont., have escaped war, persecution, and violence, arriving with very little money and nowhere to stay.

Nearly 100 new refugees visit the clinic each month looking for help with a range of complex health issues, according to Henderson, who leads the clinic’s medical team.

Now, the federal government is mandating that refugee claimants pay out-of-pocket for certain medical services that were fully covered by the Interim Federal Health Program (IFHP) before.

Henderson warns that this decision will push patients into riskier health situations and further burden an already strained emergency care system.

“I think what worries me about the rhetoric I’m hearing from the government is sort of, ‘Well, we need to equalize things,’ like, ‘Everyone should have to pay a bit.’ And it feels like it’s a race to the bottom,” said Henderson.

The IFHP offers health care support to refugees until they qualify for provincial health insurance. London’s clinic is part of London Inter Community Health Care and provides primary care during patients’ first year in Canada; after that, they need to find a long-term healthcare provider in the city.

What is the new co-pay model?

Starting May 1, Ottawa implemented a co-pay model under the IFHP. This means refugee claimants now must pay $4 for prescriptions and 30 percent for “supplemental” health services such as mental health counseling, emergency dental care, or basic vision services, along with medical devices like hearing aids or wheelchairs.

Basic essential and emergency services remain fully covered under this program including vaccinations, lab tests, and ambulance rides.

While the federal government calls these changes “co-payments,” Henderson points out many refugees simply don’t have money available for their healthcare needs.

She shares an example of one patient with cerebral palsy who has trouble swallowing but can’t afford outpatient therapy right after arriving in Canada.

“This will mean that we are at a higher risk of choking, of having an aspiration, of having pneumonia, of ending up in hospital,” she said.

Government says changes will save money

A backlog of individuals seeking asylum in Canada continues to grow.

The federal government claims that IHFP provided coverage for over 623,000 people in 2024-25 at a cost near $896 million.

A statement from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada indicated that implementing these changes could lead to around $127 million savings in 2026-27 and approximately $232 million thereafter.

Henderson notes officials haven’t shared any data backing those estimates.

“They haven’t provided us any data to back up what their analysis is as to why they think this will save costs,” she said. “They did tell us there wasn’t any expert consultation in this decision.”

She believes this policy may ultimately be more costly since patients might delay getting care until their conditions worsen into emergencies.

Henderson hopes there will be a reversal on these changes since there’s already been precedent set before.

In 2012 when Stephen Harper’s Conservative government reduced coverage offered by IFHP a legal challenge was filed against those cuts leading a federal court justice ruling in 2014 determined those changes violated Section 12 of the Charter.

This ruling was appealed by Harper’s administration but was dropped once Justin Trudeau took office.

Sitting down at her desk ten years ago when Henderson began working at the refugee clinic only saw about thirty-to-forty new arrivals per month-a number that’s doubled since then. Though she’s collaborating with her patients alongside other organizations trying not cause harm; many patients feel neglected due these recent cuts she mentioned earlier.

“It feels like one more place where we are pulling back as a society and we’re all starting to look inward and only think about ourselves and only care about ourselves,” said Henderson.

“There’s a quote about how you know you can judge society based on how they take care of least among them. And I would say when we move in this direction , it gives me sick feeling my stomach.”

Source link