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413Migrant
Health in a Time of Pandemic: Fallacies of Us-Versus-Them
respective health insurance programs in an effort to stem the spread
of the virus. Most notably, Ontario has temporarily extended cover-
age for medically necessary health care to all previously uninsured
people in the province, and the three-month waiting period it typi-
cally imposed on new and returning residents has been suspended for
the time being.23 British Columbia has adopted similar policy changes.
However, its broadening of essential health care coverage to formerly
uninsured individuals is restricted to foreign workers with a permit
of less than six months, as well as temporary residents who remain
in the province on lapsed work or study permits—many of whom
are facing administrative delays in renewing their immigration docu-
ments or are stranded by pandemic-related border closures and flight
cancellations.24 For other uninsured migrants such as undocumented
persons, only health care services “related to suspected or confirmed
cases of infection with COVID-19” will be publicly covered.25
Comparatively, other provinces and territories, as well as the
federal government, have been much less responsive to migrants’
health care needs during the pandemic. They have either not
expanded migrants’ health care entitlement at all within their juris-
dictions, or only introduced what may at best be described as half
measures. For instance, Alberta has extended health care coverage to
foreign workers with expired permits for the duration of the prov-
ince’s pandemic-triggered state of emergency.26 But unlike British
Columbia, it has made no effort to provide publicly funded health
care to other uninsured residents, not even services required to assess,
test, or treat COVID-19.
In contrast, Newfoundland and Labrador, Quebec, and Manitoba
have announced that they would cover the cost of COVID-19 testing
and treatment for all residents regardless of their health insurance
23. Ontario Health Insurance Plan Bulletin, 4749, “COVID-19 Expanding Access to
OHIP Coverage and Funding Physician and Hospital Services for Uninsured
Patients” (25 March 2020), online: Ontario Ministry of Health <health.gov.on.ca/
en/pro/programs/ohip/bulletins/4000/bul4749.aspx>.
24. “Medical Services Plan Response to COVID-19” (last modified 9 April 2020),
online: British Columbia <gov.bc.ca/gov/content/health/health-drug-coverage/
msp/bc-residents/msp-covid-19-response>.
25. Ibid.
26. Rachel Ward, “Alberta Extends Health Care to Uninsured Foreigners With
Lapsed Work Permits During Pandemic”, CBC News (23 April 2020), online:
<cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/alberta-health-care-extension-expired-work-per-
mits-1.5543174?__vfz=medium%3Dsharebar>.
VULNERABLE
The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19
- Titel
- VULNERABLE
- Untertitel
- The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19
- Autoren
- Vanessa MacDonnell
- Jane Philpott
- Sophie Thériault
- Sridhar Venkatapuram
- Verlag
- Ottawa Press
- Datum
- 2020
- Sprache
- englisch
- Lizenz
- CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
- ISBN
- 9780776636429
- Abmessungen
- 15.2 x 22.8 cm
- Seiten
- 648
- Kategorien
- Coronavirus
- International