International students plead for health coverage

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This article was published 15/02/2024 (618 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WINNIPEG — International students and recent graduates who call Manitoba home are urging the NDP government to immediately fulfil a campaign promise to reinstate universal health coverage.

Healthcare for All Manitoba hosted a news conference Wednesday to promote a new report and renew calls for the province to cover the cost of all post-secondary students’ visits to the doctor, regardless of a patient’s citizenship status.

The group announced an expansion of its advocacy efforts to secure coverage for migrant workers and undocumented immigrants.

“We cannot afford to wait,” spokeswoman Judith Oviosun-Smith told reporters gathered on the University of Winnipeg downtown campus.

“Every day that passes by without access to health-care coverage jeopardizes the well-being and lives of countless individuals within our community.”

Oviosun-Smith, who is from Nigeria, was midway through her undergraduate degree when the then-PC government announced it was stripping her and her peers of health-care coverage in 2018.

At the time, the Pallister government indicated the policy change would save the provincial treasury $3.1 million annually. International students have since had to pay out of pocket for private insurance that costs about $1,000 extra per academic year.

Citing concerns about the limitations of her private plan, Oviosun-Smith said she began actively avoiding the hospital — a shared experience among international students, even when they become severely ill, according to a recent report.

Oviosun-Smith, who graduated from the University of Manitoba in 2021 and is now a permanent resident, is one of four researchers who studied the effect of COVID-19 on international students and the population’s broader challenges in accessing health services over the last five years.

“This policy (change) has led to an increase in the uninsured migrant population and overall unmet health needs in Manitoba, raising the question as to why health-care access is viewed as a human right for some and treated as a commodity, or an incentive that can be turned on and off, for others,” states an excerpt of their 31-page report, published by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

In 2021, the Canadian Federation of Students — a founding member of Healthcare for All Manitoba — launched a poll in which about 30 temporary residents participated in the anonymous survey.

Common themes included financial stress as a result of the 2018 policy change, in addition to reports of fear, uncertainty and risk in connection to dealing with personal health issues.

Advocates collected dozens of signed postcards from supporters to be dropped off at the offices of Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara and Advanced Education Minister Renée Cable.

The NDP’s communications office did not respond to requests for comment before deadline.

» Winnipeg Free Press