Where is your humanity, Prime Minister and all the ministers included on this message (except my compassionate and intelligent MP )?
I urge you to immediately rescind the proposed Interim Federal Health Program (IFHP) co-payments and fully restore comprehensive health coverage for refugees and claimants in Canada, before May 1, 2026.
The IFHP co-payments will:
(1) Deny access to essential care – a refugee managing diabetes and hypertension may take five or six medications; at $4 per prescription plus 30% co-pays for dental and mental health care, most will simply go without
(2) Cost more, not less – the government still covers 100% of emergency visits and hospitalizations, meaning untreated conditions will drive up ER and hospital costs that dwarf any savings from co-payments
(3) Punish the most vulnerable – refugees are fleeing persecution, war, sexual violence, and torture; co-payments function as a penalty for seeking safety in Canada
(4) Repeat a proven mistake – the 2012 refugee health cuts caused preventable harm and were struck down by the Federal Court as "cruel and unusual treatment," a violation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Those cuts were reversed. We cannot afford to repeat them.
IFHP supplemental benefits are already comparable to what provincial social assistance programs offer Canadians at similar income levels – making co-payments an unjust and inequitable burden on people who have nothing to fall back on.
I call on the government to rescind the IFHP co-payment plan in full and restore comprehensive coverage for all refugees and claimants, without co-payments, before May 1, 2026.
It does not “build Canada” or make us “stronger together” to kick people when they are already down. It does not “save” the government money to put extra stress on people already under duress – it simply shifts costs elsewhere including the cost of human happiness and worse, human life.
Comments