‘Punch in the gut’: NDP’s promised health coverage for international students absent from budget

International students who pay hundreds of dollars out of pocket for health-care insurance every year are disappointed to learn that promised relief isn’t included in Manitoba’s Budget 2025.

The NDP campaigned on reinstating coverage for non-citizen scholars enrolled in post-secondary schools in the leadup to the 2023 election.

“It felt like a final punch in the gut,” said Tomiris Kaliyeva, an international student from Kazakhstan, describing her reaction to Premier Wab Kinew’s latest budget — the government’s second of its first term — not making good on that pledge.

Kaliyeva, president of the University of Winnipeg Students Association, has spent much of the last four years advocating for international students, who are being treated like “cash cows” while being made to feel increasingly unwelcome in Canada, she said.

International tuition fees are roughly four times higher than those for domestic students at her university. The U of W students also pay about $740 for health-care coverage, which is on the lower end of plans at local campuses, every year.

Following a recent meeting with government officials and Thursday’s budget release, Kaliyeva said she’s given up hope that future cohorts of international students will be able to visit a doctor at no cost.

The province has neither provided UWSA with reassurance nor a timeline to follow through on the 2023 promise to reinstate coverage, she noted.

Manitoba Health hasn’t covered the tab for students’ emergency hospital visits and other medical bills since 2018.

The Progressive Conservatives, under the leadership of then-premier Brian Pallister, estimated the policy change would save the province $3.1 million annually (about $3.8 million in 2025).

“Health care is a basic human right. Even though they didn’t include us in this budget, we will keep pushing and raising awareness for the need for everyone to get health care,” said Patricia Ahonon, a member of Healthcare for All Manitoba.

It is unjust for any resident who pays taxes to be excluded from receiving free medical services, said Ahonon, a PhD student at the University of Manitoba who is a citizen of both the west African nation of Benin and the United States.

Despite living and working in Winnipeg, the mother of two said she’s had to drive south of the border so her children can get treatment. She pays for private insurance through U of M, but it does not cover her kids.

U of M’s health-care plan for international students totals $1,104 for 12 months, from Sept. 1 to Aug. 31.

International students at Red River College Polytechnic are automatically charged $840 per year for an emergency health plan. Expansion packages cost more.

Advanced Education Minister Renée Cable said the province’s priority is fixing health care and increasing access to post-secondary programs, and that’s reflected in Budget 2025.

“We want all students to be able to focus on their studies without worrying about how they will access care,” Cable said in a statement Friday.

The minister indicated her office is working with students and administrators to “explore options” to find the best solution after the Tories cut coverage.

The province has topped up its general student aid program by $25 million, per the new budget.

Kaliyeva, who is nearing the end of her presidential term at UWSA, is uncertain about her future in Manitoba.

“Most students feel like they don’t have a tomorrow here,” she said, noting the federal government’s caps on international enrolment have heightened anxiety levels.

“The climate around immigration is very hostile right now and no (international student) feels welcome anymore.”

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca