Canada: Supplemental Health

Health Benefit Coverage Dept: Needless to say, that announcement provoked a considerable amount of outrage, since it meant Canada would provide refugees with health care inferior even to what they received in refugee camps abroad. Consequently, on June 29, one day before the changes were to take effect, new information on the C.I.C. website stated that "resettlement refugees" - those who were identified as refugees before coming to Canada - would continue to receive supplemental health benefits, according to Vancouver Sun. Whatever the truth of the matter, continuing supplemental health benefit coverage for resettlement refugees is certainly the right thing to do, and not just for the refugees' welfare. Rather, it also helps reduce the costs to Canada's health care system, for if refugees don't receive such benefits - for example, if they don't receive coverage for medications for chronic diseases - they will likely eventually require emergency or other treatment that is considerably more expensive and aware that some people had abused Canada's compassion-ate treatment regime for refugee claimants, Citizenship and Immigration Canada C.I.C. announced in April that as of June 30, refugees would no longer receive "supplemental" health benefits, which include medications, vision care and dental care. Although the original statement seemed clear that such refugees would not receive such benefits, Citizen-ship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney insisted that the government never intended to deprive resettlement refugees of coverage for medication, vision and dental care. Rather, he said the new information constituted a "clarification" of, rather than a change in, government policy. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.