Moira Wyton, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Tyee- December 26, 2021 / 5:17 am | Story: 355524
Photo: Colin Dacre file photo
According to a new study, the three-month period awaiting the health benefits of British Columbia has the greatest impact on racial migrants and migrant females, with basic medical or food and other issues. You are forced to choose between the essentials.
Researchers at the University of British Columbia’s Gender and Sexual Health Equity Center have found that lack of timely routine tests and tests during the waiting period, especially for pregnant parents and newborns, can lead to poor health and lifelong consequences. I discovered that it could bring about.
A coalition of 19 immigrant rights, poverty reduction, civil liberties, and labor groups forever puts policy in British Columbia, with clear evidence that mostly poor and racialized immigrants have been harmed. I am asking you to abolish it.
“We can talk for days about the health implications of policy,” said Omar Chu, organizer of Sanctuary Health in Lower Mainland. “At the same time, it’s the emotional impact of those struggling for permanent residence. They don’t have the universal public health qualifications that many Canadians consider to be their core value.”
If someone moves to BC, visa of any kind, from another state or from another country, will be covered by basic state health insurance for the rest of the month of arrival and another two months. It will not be.
BC is the only state that has such a waiting period for newborns and pregnancy-related and emergency care without exception, as in Quebec and Ontario. There is no waiting period in other states. New Brunswick abolished the waiting period in 2010.
Due to the pandemic that occurred in March 2020, BC responded to the pandemic by removing the three-month waiting period and temporarily extending the scope of MSP to temporary foreign workers.
When the measures were completed in July 2020, Health Minister Adrian Dix defended the waiting period.
“We have a 90-day rule, which means people can’t come here and get health care on the first day and get that health care at the expense of everyone in British Columbia,” he said. Said. “This is the basis of how to run a public health system in British Columbia.”
Tyee sought comment from the Prime Minister’s Office and the Ministry of Health.
Proponents have been calling for the end of the waiting period for decades, and the pandemic shows how urgent changes are needed, Chu said.
“There is no reason to discourage people from accessing the health care system, as the number of cases is skyrocketing again,” he said.
In an open letter sent to Prime Minister John Horgan, opposition leader Shirley Bond and Dix, Sanctuary Health and 18 other organizations said the policy violated many human rights treaties.
“Immigrant women perceive and experience this policy as a xenophobia, so they feel unwelcome and perpetuate distrust and barriers to access to the medical care they need. I read the letter.
Racialized migrants and migrant workers often work in front-line services, food processing and manufacturing, and are more likely to be infected with COVID-19.
The pandemic also caused months and years delays in the processing of visas, work permits and residence permits. Immigrant MSP eligibility expires each time the status expires.
If someone’s student visa expires before the work permit is granted due to a pandemic delay, that expiration means that they will have to wait another three months for coverage, Chu said.
And because pregnancy and other common health problems are considered existing conditions and are not covered, many cannot afford or qualify for private insurance to fill the gap.
The health insurance waiting period also applies to newborns whose parents do not yet have MSP status.
Shira Goldenberg, co-author of the study, director of research and education at the Center, and assistant professor of global health at Simon Fraser University, said the lack of care for women and children during the waiting period once they were needed. It is insured that it leads to more expensive and invasive care.
“There is a medical need that can’t wait like a pregnancy and puts the family in an impossible situation,” Goldenberg said in an interview.
“Many women have more serious problems due to delayed care.”
Some institutions can help fill the healthcare gap, but the need to find workarounds enhances the sense of racism and alien exclusion 47 women interviewed for research Many said they faced in the healthcare system.
As a result, migrants are less worthy of care and less likely to seek it when they need it in the future, Goldenberg said.
Both Chu and Goldenberg want the state to respond urgently to this evidence as British Columbia’s fifth wave of Omicron-led surges.
“The waiting period policy is inconsistent with the values we think we hold in that most British Columbia citizens are a comprehensive and welcoming state. And here we are. It has one of Canada’s most xenophobic health policies, “Goldenberg said.
