Hazel’s Blog May 17,
2012
Immigration Minister Jason Kenney recently announced he would
eliminate coverage of supplemental health benefits like vision care, dental
work and drug costs for refugees. Excerpt from: Rebecca Lindell, Global
News: Friday May 11, 2012
“Refugees will still receive basic health coverage, comparable to
provincial programs and medication and immunizations will be provided in cases
where there is a risk to public health.
The government expects the cuts will save taxpayers 100 million over
five years.
“Tyndall disagrees: “It will be offloaded to emergency rooms to deal
with these things and it makes no sense at all…I’ll cost five times that much
if we rely on emergency rooms and hospitals.”
SOUNDOFF: Do you think refugees should receive a year
of health care benefits, which include those not available for average
Canadians like dental and vision care?
Of course I believe in
equality for all. Don’t take away this
most precious gift that our Canadian Refugees need to help them to rise to
their potential here in Canada and become healthy productive citizens. They are
part of our economic future and if we address any health issues and concerns
now we will be avoiding creating a pool of very ill and dying people that will
be even more costly to the health system.
Also costly to a more important factor “Human Life” and dignity; it’s
inhumane to step back and let people become ill. They say it takes a community to raise a
child, I say it takes a nation to raise a refugee, an immigrant to the pinnacle
of settlement, where they can stand tall and feel proud to call Canada home and
mean it. Our investment today is our
outcome for tomorrow, let’s pull together and build our new and future
Canadians.
Any child, elderly,
or young person with an aching tooth should have basic dental care. Depending
on the dental need should depend on government coverage. There should be a plan in place for refugees
and Canadians alike to meet basic coverage, even start with emergency dental
work.
Drugs and
medications; once again I think that refugees have come from a background that
we don’t fully understand, they may be in poor health due to civil warfare or
famine. Their needs may differ and be
life or death threatening. Once again I
believe that Canadians should also receive the same treatments when the seriousness
of a health condition validates the need.
I don’t think that we
should abolish the refugee health plan, which is only in place for them for a
two year period. Tynall says; “refugees won’t get the drugs
they need to treat conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure or pneumonia.” I
believe that it is inhumane to let any human being fall in to bad health when
it can be avoided. Also the hospital
trips and medical care costs would far outdo the drug costs. When they become seriously ill due to lack of
treatment then the whole scene gets worse including the medical costs. We should keep in mind that we need to help
our Canadian Refugees bounce back to good health, build them up, we need to
remember that they are part of our Canadian mosaic and future tax payers
too. By letting them get stuck in bad
health is cruel and is not a help to our health system. Spend some money today to save for tomorrow
and do the right thing and treat people when they are ill. Also by treating refugees and others who are
ill we do keep some of the devastating diseases at bay such as tuberculosis;
the worst thing to do is not to check for and treat it. We need to address the need to stop the
spread of any potential communicable diseases.
Are there other areas
that could be cut back; how many more #*#?*$ and new buildings do we really
need? Hmm… what other cutbacks would be
more suitable, ones that would be better than cutting back on health
services. Let’s prioritize.
Let’s not wait until
we’re in a state of emergency, an epidemic of some sort, let’s practice preventive
medicine and keep the medical benefits coming as needed for refugees and
Canadians alike.
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