scholarly journals In the Name of Humanitarianism: The Interim Federal Health Program and the Irregularization of Refugee Claimants

Refuge ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 61-72
Author(s):  
Laura Connoy
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Access To Health Care ◽  
Health Program ◽  
Care Program ◽  
Health Care Coverage ◽  
Health Care Program ◽  
Access To Health ◽  
Refugee Claimants ◽  
Determination System ◽  
Interim Federal Health Program

Since 1957 Canada’s Interim Federal Health Program (IFHP) has provided health-care coverage to refugee populations. However, from June 2012 to April 2016 the program was drastically revised in ways that restricted or denied access to health-care coverage, specifically to refugee claimants—persons who have fed their country and made an asylum claim in another country. One of the main intentions of the revision was to protect the integrity of Canada’s humanitarian refugee determination system. However, this had a major unintended consequence: within everyday healthcare places like walk-in clinics, doctor’s offices, and hospitals, IFHP recipients were denied access to services, regardless of actual levels of coverage. In this article I analyze how these program restrictions were experienced within Toronto’s everyday health-care places through the concept of irregularization. I discuss how the IFHP, as a humanitarian health-care program, problematizes the presence of refugee claimants in ways that created experiences of vulnerability, insecurity, and anxiety. Building on this view, I conclude with a discussion of how activists who sought to draw attention to the experiences of refugee claimants in the aftermath of the IFHP revisions closed of truly transformative pathways toward social justice.

scholarly journals “Part of Being Canadian is Having Access to Health Care”: Framing the Boundaries of Healthcare Deservingness for Non-Citizens through the Interim Federal Health Benefits Plan

2019 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paloma E. Villegas ◽  
Jenna Blower
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Access To Health Care ◽  
Health Program ◽  
Health Benefits ◽  
Moral Worth ◽  
Immigration Status ◽  
Canadian Government ◽  
News Sources ◽  
Access To Health ◽  
Interim Federal Health Program

Background In June 2012, the Canadian government cut eligibility to the Interim Federal Health Program (IFHP) for some refugees and refugee claimants.Analysis Drawing from news sources, this article examines the ways different actors—politicians and advocates—framed deservingness and undeservingness to support or contest the IFHP cuts. Deservingness refers to the ways value or worth is allocated to differently situated individuals based on their social location.Conclusions and implications The authors explore how deservingness is understood through a lens of citizenship, focusing on immigration status, understandings of “illegality” and criminalization of non-citizens, and varying versions of “Canadian values.” They argue that different interlocutors participated in the drawing and redrawing of boundaries of social and moral worth related to both presence in and access to social goods in Canada.RÉSUMÉContexte  En juin 2012, le gouvernement canadien a réduit l’admissibilité au Programme fédéral de santé intérimaire (PFSI) de certains—certaines réfugiés-réfugiées et demandeursdemandeures d’asile.Analyse Tiré de sources d’actualité, cet article examine la manière dont différents acteurs—des politiciens et des défenseurs—ont conceptualisé le mérite et l’indignité pour appuyer ou contester les réductions du PFSI. Le mérite se réfère aux manières dont la valeur est attribuée aux individus situés différemment en fonction de leur emplacement social.Conclusions et implications Les auteures explorent la manière dont le mérite est compris dans l’optique de la citoyenneté, en se concentrant sur le statut d'immigration, la compréhension de « l’illégalité » et la criminalisation des non-citoyens et diverses versions des « valeurs canadiennes ». Elles soutiennent que différents interlocuteurs ont participé a établir et redéfinir les limites de la valeur sociale et morale liées à la présence et à l’accès aux biens sociaux au Canada.

110 Interim Federal Health Program (IFHP): Survey of Access & Utilization by Pediatric Health Care Providers

2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. e79-e80
Author(s):  
Caroline Leps ◽  
Jessica Monteiro ◽  
Tony Barozzino ◽  
Ashna Bowry ◽  
Meb Rashid ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Care Providers ◽  
Access To Health Care ◽  
Health Program ◽  
Subject Area ◽  
Refugee Children ◽  
Surveillance Program ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
Survey Responses ◽  
Interim Federal Health Program

Abstract Primary Subject area Public Health and Preventive Medicine Background Canada is currently facing an increasing number of refugees and refugee claimants, yet Canadian health professionals are underutilizing the system intended to provide these individuals with healthcare. The Interim Federal Health Program (IFHP) provides temporary healthcare coverage for those who are ineligible for provincial or territorial insurance, including resettled refugees and asylum seekers. Research suggests there are ongoing challenges around the program such as who is covered and what services are covered. Objectives The objective of this study was to assess Canadian pediatricians’ current understanding and utilization of the IFHP, and perceived barriers to its utilization. Design/Methods A one-time survey was administered via the Canadian Paediatric Surveillance Program. The ten question adaptive survey was available in English or French, in either paper or electronic format. Survey responses were collected for 6 weeks in early 2020 with two reminders sent prior to survey closing. In addition to descriptive statistics, multinomial logistic regressions were built to examine pediatrician use of the IFHP, work with IFHP-covered patients, and provider characteristics associated with registration and use. Results Of the 2,753 pediatricians and pediatric subspecialists surveyed, there were 1006 respondents (36.5% response rate). 52.2% of respondents had provided care to the IFHP-eligible patients in the previous 6 months. Of those participants, only 26.4% were registered IFHP providers, and just 10% could identify all services covered by the IFHP (Figure 1). Knowledge of 80% or more of supplemental benefits was associated with registration status (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 1.92; 95% CI 1.09 - 3.37). Amongst those who knew they were not registered, 70.2% indicated they did not know they had to register. aOR demonstrated that those with fewer years of practice had higher odds of not knowing that they had to register (aOR 1.22; 95% CI 1.01 - 1.49) Conclusion We demonstrate that the IFHP is poorly utilized by pediatric providers, with low registration rates and poor understanding of the IFHP-covered supplemental services, even among those who have recently provided care to the IFHP-eligible patients. Efforts to improve registration and knowledge of the IFHP are essential to improving access to health care for refugee children and youth. Funding: Study funded by the CPSP Resident Research Grant

scholarly journals The Stories We Tell about Refugee Claimants: Contested Frames of the Health-Care Access Question in Canada

Refuge ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 125-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jesse Beatson
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Federal Government ◽  
Health Care Access ◽  
Access To Health Care ◽  
Health Care Systems ◽  
Frame Theory ◽  
Health Coverage ◽  
Health Providers ◽  
Access To Health ◽  
Refugee Claimants

A contested issue is the extent to which refugee claimants should have access to health care in Western host countries with publicly subsidized health-care systems. In Canada, for a period of over fifty years, the federal government provided relatively comprehensive health coverage to refugees and refugee claimants through the Interim Federal Health Plan (IFHP). Significant cuts to the IFHP were implemented in June 2012 by the Conservative federal government (2006–15), who justified these cuts through public statements portraying refugee claimants as bring- ing bogus claims that inundate the refugee determination system. A markedly different narrative was articulated by a pan-Canadian coalition of health providers who characterized refugee claimants as innocent victims done further harm by inhumane health-care cuts. This article presents an analysis of these two positions in terms of frame theory, with a greater emphasis on the health-provider position. This debate can be meaningfully analyzed as a contest between competing frames: bogus and victim. Frame theory suggests that frames by nature simplify and condense, in this case packaging complex realities about refugee claimants into singular images (bogus and victim), aiming to inspire suspicion and compassion respectively. It will be argued that the acceptance of current frames impoverishes the conversation by reinforcing problematic notions about refugee claimants while also obscuring a rights-based argument for why claimants should have substantial access to health care.

scholarly journals Canadian Health Personnel Attitudes Toward Refugee Claimants’ Entitlement to Health Care

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cécile Rousseau ◽  
Joanna Anneke Rummens ◽  
Rochelle L. Frounfelker ◽  
Monica Ruiz Casares Yebenes ◽  
Janet Cleveland
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Access To Care ◽  
Vulnerable Populations ◽  
Access To Health Care ◽  
Health Care Personnel ◽  
System Level ◽  
Equal Access ◽  
Access To Health ◽  
Refugee Claimants ◽  
Canadian Health

AbstractHealth care personnel attitudes toward refugee claimant entitlement to health care are influenced by multilevel factors including institutional and societal culture. Although individual attitudes may be modified through training, macro- and meso-issues require system-level interventions. This paper analyzes the role of individual-, institutional-, and city-level factors in shaping attitudes toward refugee claimants’ access to health care among Canadian health care personnel. A total of 4207 health care personnel in 16 institutions located in Montreal and Toronto completed an online survey on attitudes regarding health care access for refugee claimants. We used multilevel logistic regression analysis to identify individual-, institutional-, and city-level predictors of endorsing access to care. Participants who had prior contact with refugee claimants had greater odds of endorsing access to care than those who did not (OR 1.13; 95% CI 1.05, 1.21). Attitudes varied with occupation: social workers had the highest probability of endorsing equal access to health care (.83; 95% CI .77, .89) followed by physicians (.77; 95% CI .71, .82). An estimated 7.97% of the individual variation in endorsement of equal access to health care was attributable to differences between institutions, but this association was no longer statistically significant after adjusting for city residence. Results indicate that the contexts in which health care professionals live and work are important when understanding opinions on access to health care for vulnerable populations. They suggest that institutional interventions promoting a collective mission to care for vulnerable populations may improve access to health care for precarious status migrants.

scholarly journals A Study on Setting up a Database for Maternal Health Care Program in Darbandikhan-Kurdistan

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 470
Author(s):  
Jamal K. Shakor ◽  
Sabah Sh. Mohammed ◽  
Yadgar H. Hamakarim ◽  
Abbas M. Ahmed
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Maternal Health ◽  
Antenatal Care ◽  
Positive Attitude ◽  
Health Program ◽  
Care Program ◽  
Regional Government ◽  
Health Care Program ◽  
Care Visit ◽  
Program Components

There are around 8.64 million women in Iraq who need to maternal health. While, maternal health program in Iraq is considerably down regulated, the vertical national health program, maternal health, has been not monitored appropriately. The aim of this study was to determine the most essential preliminary indicators for monitoring maternal health program in Kurdistan/ Iraq, and to assess those technical challenges for computerizing the maternal health program of Kurdistan Regional Government. This is interventional hospital based study which was carried out in Darbandikhan district- Kurdistan State. An access database was developed for entering whole records of the maternal health program components data in the 200 mothers’ file. And, we got staff belief about database. The study has shown that antenatal care visit record would be a good indicator for assessing maternal health program, when the program was computerized. And, the staff had a positive attitude to computerize the program. This database could accelerate the monitoring and evaluating the maternal health program in considering to indicators of the program.

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