International students question whether Manitoba will reinstate their health coverage as promised
Premier Wab Kinew pledged to bring back coverage before being elected in 2023
International students at Manitoba post-secondary institutions are wondering whether the province will make good on its election promise to reinstate their health coverage more than a year after forming government.
It's a pledge Premier Wab Kinew made not long before being elected to a majority NDP government in October 2023 in a campaign that focused largely on fixing health-care issues across the province.
International student Aditya Gandhi says he didn't expect that change to happen overnight, but said it's disappointing "to almost have a false promise made" with no change on the horizon 15 months after Kinew's government was elected.
"I understand there are other important things at play and issues at play that need to be taken care of," said Gandhi, who's majoring in environmental studies at the University of Manitoba. "We are definitely not the priority in that, and that's one of the messages we get as well."
The previous Progressive Conservative government cut universal health care for international students in 2018, repealing a clause brought in under the former NDP government that instituted universal health care for those students in 2012.
Anugo Okudo, a student from Nigeria who recently graduated with a computer science degree from Brandon University, says he's seen the issues international students can face in the health-care system in Manitoba firsthand, even though they pay roughly $1,100 annually for their mandatory insurance through their tuition.
On one occasion while he was in school, he recalls, he went to a medical clinic but when he presented his Manitoba International Student Health Plan card, he was told he would have to pay close to $200 upfront and get reimbursed for it later.
"I just left, bcause if you check and you see that you don't have enough funds to cover that for that moment, I mean, there's no point to have that debate, because you know it's not going to work," Okudo said.
He says that insurance also has limits — including the fact that students are only covered for prescriptions for 100 days.
"So if you are having to get blood pressure medication or you're having mental-health issues and you need this medication, then eventually we would start to have a conversation of you paying out of pocket," Okudo said.
"You're already dealing with the high cost of tuition and now you also have to deal with your medication and your medical bills, so that actually impacts your studies if we are trying to be realistic about how it impacts students."
Government 'kicking the can down the road': health critic
In an emailed statement, Advanced Education and Training Minister Renée Cable said the government is "working with students and administration to address the previous PC government's decision to end health-care coverage for international students" and "reviewing how best to provide health care coverage to international students."
"We will continue to explore options with the intention of finding the best solution for Manitoba students," the statement says.
Kathleen Cook, health critic for the Opposition PCs, characterized that statement as the NDP government "kicking the can down the road."
"It also indicates to me that they've made this promise without having any plan as to how they were going to implement it, like so many of their promises in health care," Cook said.
Cook called the pledge to reinstate international student health coverage a "foolish" one when there are so many other health-care issues that affect people across the province.
"I believe that there's a lot of Manitobans who are waiting for care right now, who've been living and working in this province for a long time and getting those wait times down and staffing up the health-care system needs to be the priority," she said.
In an additional statement later Thursday, Cable said the government continues to work to resolve what it called the "bad decision to end international student health coverage," and added that "like all government initiatives, new programs are subject to a rigorous evaluation process that considers how, when and in what way we can best deliver on the needs of people in our province."
For Gandhi, it's important for the government to "be as honest and transparent" as it can about whether it intends to bring back universal health coverage for international students — and if so, when — so prospective students have the full picture when deciding where to study.
He said the "critically important" change would take a lot of stress away from a group of people already feeling a lot of pressure.
"If … you don't have to juggle, that's great. If you don't have to submit a claim, that's great. If you don't have to feel like an outsider when you go to a medical clinic, that's great," Gandhi said.
With files from Ian Froese, Marcy Markusa and Gavin Axelrod