So we applaud the six provinces that, in defiance of federal policy, are dipping into their own treasuries to cover the health-care costs for any refugee in need of medical care. And we applaud the hospitals and other medical facilities that brought this matter to a head by never wavering from a moral obligation to care for all refugees, even when it meant paying the costs out of their own severely stressed budgets.
The issue arose in 2012 when the federal government initiated severe limits on health coverage for refugees. It designated 37 safe countries that, except in rare cases, Canada would not recognize as places of origin for refugees. For the past 19 months, citizens of those 37 countries who arrived legally in Canada and sought refugee status have been denied federal medical coverage while their application is under review. Refugee claimants from other countries still receive emergency care but are denied many other health-care services.
Previously, every refugee received the same basic medical care as a Canadian citizen on social assistance, with the federal government paying the tab. Now, under the harsher rules, that level of comprehensive care is withheld pending approval of a refugee claimant’s application, a process that can take several months.
The new policy was intended to reduce false refugee claims and save millions of dollars. But it was basically ignored by several medical institutions. Last year The Register reported on a laudable decision by St. Joseph’s and St. Michael’s Hospitals in Toronto to absorb $174,000 in costs over several months to treat refugees stuck on the federal government’s no-care list. They took the position that, as Catholic institutions, their mission was precisely to reach out to the lost and forsaken.
Their compassion was subsequently endorsed by Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Alberta, which stepped up to take hospitals off the hook by covering the federal government’s tab. They should be commended, although Ottawa is not amused. Federal Immigration Minister Chris Alexander said the decision in Ontario was reckless and would make the province a “magnet for bogus claimants.”
True, the carrot of subsidized health care might attract some dubious refugee claims. But building a society that defends basic human values comes with costs. Sometimes the right action is not the most expedient or least expensive. As the Prime Minister recently said in Israel, sometimes a great nation should do something for no other reason than it is right.