What about the health care of migrants? Doctor encourages her profession to be advocates for universal health care

As immigrants increasingly become the convenient scapegoat for multiple crises, other public conversations are being had that dispel racist and xenophobic notions and instead center health care, housing and other essential services as human rights owed to everyone.

The Madhu Verma Migrant Justice Centre supports migrant workers in New Brunswick. The centre is calling for Medicare on arrival to temporary foreign workers and asking doctors and other health care providers to join the campaign. To encourage greater participation in the campaign, on Nov. 21, the Canadian Health Coalition joined the Madhu Centre in hosting a conversation with Dr. Nisha Kansal of the Health Care for All Coalition in Ontario.

The webinar, ‘What about the health care of migrants?,’ moderated by the Canadian Health Coalition’s Anne Lagacé Dowson, is now available for viewing here –

A family physician and women’s health provider in Toronto’s community health centres, Dr. Kansal noted “most uninsured patients are racialized and working in low-wage, non-union, precarious jobs. They are already struggling in a number of different ways and on top of that don’t have access to health care.”

Dr. Kansal turned to the “massive impact” that precarious immigration status has on physical and mental health.

“Fear, isolation and anxiety take an incredible physical and emotional toll on individuals, families and children. We know that when people have to pay high costs, out-of-pocket, for health care, they often avoid seeking care, including primary and preventative care, which causes their medical problems to become much worse until they’re often forced to seek emergency care.”  

Migrant advocates like Dr. Kansal applauded the Ontario government for expanding public health care coverage to include the uninsured during COVID-19.

“The Ontario government actually did the right thing when they expanded health care access for uninsured people through a program called the Physician and Hospital Services for Uninsured Program,” said Dr. Kansal. “The program did demonstrate a lot of benefit for patients, for health care providers, for our community at large.”

Dr. Kansal explained that the Doug Ford government cut the program in March 2023, leaving “thousands of people to suffer again without access to these services.”

“The program in fact only cost $7.5 million per year out of Ontario’s health care budget of $70 billion, in my view, a kind of a drop in the bucket for all the good that the program was able to do,” said Dr. Kansal who called for the return of the program and for the program to be permanent.

“Our health care system is underfunded and that cost is being downloaded onto low-wage racialized, precariously-housed, precariously-working migrants who also pay for services through their taxes but don’t receive any benefit from that. Our demand as healthcare for all,” said Dr. Kansal.

‘Two steps back’

“It’s truly a crisis that I see in my work every single day as a family doctor, said Dr. Kansal who pointed to a report she called groundbreaking from the Health Network for Uninsured Clients. The report, ‘Two Steps Back, confirmed the ways in which the health and well-being of uninsured patients is actually worse now than it was during the pandemic.

“Ninety-two per cent of health care providers surveyed reported how these cuts negatively impacted the well-being of their uninsured clients including through increased psychological and financial stress serious injuries that also could have been prevented with proper access to health care,” said Dr. Kansal.

Health care providers have power and should use it

Also discussed at the webinar was the Madhu Centre’s newly launched New Brunswick Sanctuary Network that aims to more rapidly connect migrant workers with service providers in the province. Another goal of the network is to have service providers join the migrant justice movement that believes everyone is deserving of access to dignified services such as health care.

“We’re often told as health workers that we shouldn’t be political but in my view the provision of health care is an inherently political act,” said Dr. Kansal.

“Health care workers have been effective in numerous ways in bringing about social change, by sharing stories and experiences in the media firsthand, collecting research to support the cause, using our expertise and our day-to-day experiences to advance equitable health policy, speaking directly to decision makers who respect the voices of health care providers,” added Dr. Kansal.

“You have a lot of power as a health care provider, as a person or an organization providing care to people that are uninsured. We’re really well poised to be advocates for a truly universal health care system,” said Dr. Kansal.