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The federal government has reinstated full coverage for a handful of health-care services for refugees, but doctors say it’s not nearly enough.
On May 1, Canada’s Interim Federal Health Program imposed a 30 per cent co-payment requirement for products and services ranging from wheelchairs to mental health counselling.
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More than a dozen medical, nursing, social work and refugee organizations — including the Canadian Medical Association, the Canadian Nurses Association, the Canadian Paediatric Society and the Canadian Psychiatric Association — warned that refugees can’t afford those co-payments and their physical and mental health would suffer.
As of July 31, the government resumed paying the full cost of some supplies including home oxygen tanks, feeding pumps, sleep apnea monitors, ventilators and implantable hearing aids for children and teens.
It is also covering the cost of long-term care up to a maximum of $1,736 per month.
But Dr. Parisa Rezaiefar, physician lead of the Ottawa Newcomer Health Centre, says although the move will help some refugees, many more need dental care, eyeglasses, mental health counselling, wheelchairs, catheters and other health services not fully covered.
“To me, it sounds like a very superficial approach by specific targeting of items that are, yes, of course, very significant, but they apply only to very few people who would need these items,” said Rezaiefar, who is also an associate professor at the University of Ottawa.
Dr. Vanessa Redditt, a family physician at Women’s College Hospital’s refugee clinic in Toronto, welcomed the changes but said those co-payments should never have been implemented in the first place.
The Interim Federal Health Program (IFHP) also requires refugees and refugee claimants to pay $4 for every prescription — another cost they said many patients can’t cover.
Saskatoon doctor Cassandra Pancyr, a family physician at Saskatoon Community Clinic, said in April the changes concerned her greatly.
“We have many patients with complex medical issues, things that absolutely require medication to prevent hospitalization, death and injury,” she said, pointing to patients with epilepsy, diabetes and cardiac issues.
“A lot of people know that a person with diabetes often needs at least four medications,” Pancyr said. “They might need multiple and so this could add up to more than $30 a month for patients.”
Pancyr said an extra $30 per month can be extremely difficult for someone who is already “living by the skin of their teeth.
“These are not people who chose to come here. They are fleeing a dire situation in their country. They have no protection from their government. They have no services that they bring with them,” Pancyr said.
Since May, Redditt and Rezaiefar have been spending a lot of time trying to find suppliers who will waive the pharmacy fees and 30 per cent co-payments, as well as trying to access funding to fill the gap. But many of their patients are doing without essential health-care services because they can’t afford them.
“We’ve seen children be hospitalized for weeks because they can’t be discharged home because they cannot afford the medical supplies that will keep them safe and healthy at home,” Redditt said.
“We see individuals who are arriving who require wheelchairs, who cannot access that basic mobility support. (We see) people who have suffered the most horrific sexual violence who are now facing co-payments for essential trauma counselling.”
IFHP pays the full cost of hospital visits and doctor’s appointments.
But health-care providers say not covering the full cost of drugs and supplementary health services only leads to more expensive care in hospitals when patients’ conditions deteriorate.
“(I have) newly arrived, government-assisted refugees who decline to see a dentist, despite the fact that they need multiple dental care procedures,” Rezaiefar said.
“So we’re going to wait until they have complications, they have (an) abscess and then they end up in hospital.”
“It just makes no sense to me.”
Redditt said the federal government’s arguments that the co-payments and fees is a cost-saving measure “just don’t hold water.”
“Ultimately when people’s health deteriorates and they end up needing acute care or they suffer long-term complications, that costs our health system more. It means people can’t participate in the workforce. It can have intergenerational effects for families,” she said.
Health insurance for refugees is provided by Medavie Blue Cross. According to the company’s insurance code guide, patients still need to pay 30 per cent of the cost of regular, non-implantable hearing aids, catheters, wheelchairs, canes and crutches.
The guide also says that in-hospital physiotherapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy is fully covered.
But Rezaiefar said that doesn’t help people who need those therapies and aren’t inpatients.
A spokesperson for the minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada said the health services moved back from partial coverage to full coverage are “not a reversal of the measures IRCC introduced in May 2026.”
Taous Ait said the services were moved from the supplemental benefits category to the basic benefits category, which eliminated the 30 per cent co-pay.
Ait said the move is meant to align refugee health coverage with provincial and territorial health benefits.
“This targeted adjustment affects a very small proportion of current IFHP beneficiaries and largely maintains the approximately $200 million in projected annual savings associated with the May 2026 program changes,” she said in an email on Friday.
“Fewer than one per cent of the approximately 600,000 people currently eligible for IFHP coverage access these services.”
Doctors say they will continue their efforts to convince the federal government that cutting funding to the “most vulnerable people” is not the way to save taxpayer dollars, because refugees will become productive members of society if their health-care needs are met.
“We’re blaming refugees and newcomers for our health-care system that is already struggling and we’re making health care more inequitable,” Rezaiefar said.
“We’re not done advocating.”
— with files from 650 CKOM’s Mia Holowaychuk
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