The presbyterian church is urging the federal government to reverse cuts to health care coverage for refugees.
As of June 30, supplementary health care benefits such as medications, prosthetics and vision and dental care are no longer covered for non-government sponsored refugees. Previously, such care was paid for under the Interim Federal Health Program.
Privately sponsored refugees and refugee claimants will continue to receive basic health care.
Eight medical associations, the Toronto Board of Rabbis and the Canadian Council for Refugees also protested the changes to the IFHP, which are estimated to save the government $20 million a year.
In a letter to Jason Kenney, minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, Rev. Dr. Rick Fee urged the government to reconsider.
As the general secretary of the Life and Mission Agency, Fee said he is concerned changes to the program will serve as a “disincentive” to congregations keen to support refugees through the church’s sponsorship agreement.
“Refugee sponsorship is already a leap of faith,” said Carolyn Vanderlip, who until recently was the refugee co-ordinator for Presbyterian World Service and Development. “Now it’s even more of a leap of faith.
“You can plan how much the rent is going to be and how much groceries will be [for new refugees in Canada]. You can’t plan for unexpected, potentially catastrophic medical conditions.
“If a refugee is diagnosed with something and can’t access medication, a sponsor is not going to sit by and watch someone become ill—or worse. Clearly there’s a moral obligation there. But how do you plan? It’s a challenge.”
The added pressure program cuts put on churches is “unfair,” argued Fee in a second letter to the government. Churches committed to sponsorships based on the program as it was when the agreements were signed, he said.
The Anglican Diocese of Rubert’s Land, Man., shares Fee’s position, calling the recent cuts a breach of contract. In June, the diocese and Hospitality House, a refugee ministry in Winnipeg, filed a suit against the federal government over the changes to the IFHP. The diocese is one largest refugee sponsors in Canada.
“One of the assumptions underlying the sponsorships is that the Interim Federal Health plan would be in place,” said Tom Denton, executive director of Hospitality House.
“The government’s stance seems very contradictory,” said Janet Dench, executive director of the Canadian Council for Refugees.
“On the one hand they have been encouraging groups to come forward and do sponsorship … But at the same time they suddenly made this change which is going to make any financially responsible Canadian very nervous about signing a blank cheque in terms of potential costs.”
In response to Fee’s first letter, the Citizenship and Immigration Canada office defended the “reforms” as necessary to “ensure fairness for Canadians, the majority of whom do not have government-funded coverage of the full cost of medications, assistive devices and the like.”
“What we will no longer do is ask hard-working Canadian taxpayers to foot the bill for health care services … that are more generous than what they are entitled to themselves,” said immigration spokesperson Alexis Pavlich in a separate statement.
Providing supplemental health care benefits to refugees is not giving them any more what Canadians receive, argued Fee.
“[They are] the same type of benefits our lowest income Canadian citizens receive through social assistance,” he said.
“To look at refugees as if they’re taking something from us is very, very damaging,” said Dench. “We need to all be helping each other and not setting one group of people against another and particularly not Canadians against refugees, because refugees are among the most vulnerable people in our society.”
