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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Health bond for immigrants mulled
OTTAWA -- Elderly immigrants cost the government approximately $3 billion annually in health care, while those older than 50 who have worked, have never reported earning more than $15,000 a year, figures suggest.
The figures are contained in a memo produced before the government froze the parent and grandparent stream and introduced a 10-year, multiple-entry super-visa that requires visiting relatives to show proof of a year's worth of health insurance as a stopgap measure while Ottawa deals with a huge backlog in applications.
It suggests the government has concerns about the cost of elderly immigrants.
Released through access to information and prepared for Immigration Minister Jason Kenney in "response to a request for information regarding the cost of health care to senior immigrants and the contribution that parents and grandparents make to household income," the memo raises questions about whether Canada might be moving toward a two-tier health-care system for newcomers.
It suggests some 2,712 refugees older than 65 cost the government $7.4 million in 2000-2010. Based on data collected between 1980 and 2010, Citizenship and Immigration estimates there were about 275,000 immigrant parents and grandparents over 65 living in Canada in 2010 at a cost of nearly $3 billion a year for health care.
The cost for a newcomer senior who lives to age 85 years was cited at about $160,000.
A Commons committee has called for the super-visa to be made permanent -- and last month, the government announced it was cutting health benefits to refugees, which touched off a wave of protest among physicians.
On Thursday, Kenney said the Tories are considering a premium aimed at defraying health-care costs.
"One idea has been to require families to put down some kind of a health-care bond for sponsoring parents or grandparents. They would pay up front for a portion of the health-care costs that their parents would use in Canada," he said.
-- Postmedia News
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition May 18, 2012 A19
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