Open Letter from No One is Illigal: COVID-19 pandemic highlights urgent need to ensure full healthcare access to those uninsured

Wellness Within: An Organization for Health and Justice supports No One Is Illegal's campaign for healthcare for all regardless of immigration status.

Nova Scotia: COVID-19 pandemic highlights urgent need to ensure full healthcare access to those uninsured

Dear Premier McNeil and Minister Delorey,

The novel coronavirus COVID-19 is now a pandemic, and a public health emergency in Canada. Uninsured individuals in Canada are often denied access to care and can face insurmountable debt. We are deeply concerned about these pre-existing barriers to health care for uninsured individuals in Canada, and the potential public health implications in the context of a pandemic. As a group of health care providers, health organizations and community members, we call on all levels of government, health institutions, and public health leaders to act now to ensure care for everyone.

The uninsured include some temporary foreign workers, some international students, some asylum seekers and undocumented residents. We need COVID-19 assessment centres and related care to be explicitly accessible to all people, regardless of immigration status. Beyond this, we must recognize that people experiencing symptoms associated with COVID-19 will seek care through community clinics and hospitals, and therefore these sites must also be free and accessible to all.

We demand that all levels of government, health institutions, and public health leaders work together to immediately:

  1. Ensure COVID-19 assessment centres have an explicit policy to be free and accessible to all, regardless of immigration status;

  2. Recognize that existing health care pathways such as community clinics and hospitals must be free and accessible to all people, regardless of immigration status, and work to remove barriers such as registration fees and bills, and implement appropriate staff training;

  3. Develop a clear and explicit public messaging campaign to inform people that assessment and care is available to all residents, without charge, at COVID-19 centres and beyond;

  4. Ensure MSI (Nova Scotia healthcare) coverage for all residents of NS permanently, including access to care for COVID-19.

Sign here.

Grace Szucs