Protesters target Harper's refugee health cuts

MONTREAL - Medical associations across the country have planned a national day of action Monday to shine the spotlight on the Conservative government’s quiet cutting of refugee health-care coverage – a program that costs each Canadian about $3 per year.

Psychologist David Woodbury, who has lent a compassionate ear for years to refugees to Canada who are isolated, vulnerable and emotionally fragile, says the news has filled his clients with hopelessness.

“I’m losing sleep because I’m having to tell people we have to end our therapeutic relationship or they might have to find a little money because I can’t see 20 people for nothing,” he said.

As of June 30, refugee claimants – or those who have been refused but whose country is still deemed too dangerous for them to return to – will no longer receive free health care or medication under the Federal Interim Healthcare Program, unless their condition threatens public health. Someone arriving here with diabetes, for example, will have to pay for medication on their own.

Funding to Intervention Network of Persons Affected by Organized Violence, which helps refugees with psychological scars and of which Woodbury is president, also has been cut. About 40 therapists in the network helped about 570 refugees last year.

According to a news release from Citizenship and Immigration Canada, the reformed program will end the coverage of supplemental health-care benefits, such as dentistry, vision care, and “mobility assistive devices.” The program will still provide health-care coverage for services and products of an urgent or essential nature, the department says.

Those accepted as refugees will continue to receive a provincial health-care card.

The Canadian Association of Optometrists, the Canadian Association of Social Workers, the Canadian Dental Association, the Canadian Medical Association, and the Canadian Nurses Association, among others, are all throwing their support behind the protest Monday.

“We’re hoping the general population will pay attention because with a majority government they can do what they like,” Woodbury said. “And they would like to do a lot of it under the radar.

“So the one thing we can do is watch and document.”

Events will take place Monday in cities across Canada, including Montreal, where there will be a demonstration at 12:30 p.m. in front of Citizenship and Immigration Canada offices at 1010 St. Antoine St. W.

Original Article
Source: canada.com
Author: Sue Montgomery