The Minister of Health, Christian Dubé, will send a directive to the network so that the children of migrants without status obtain reimbursements for their health care as planned.
“The law must be applied by all health establishments in Quebec,” his office indicated to Duty Wednesday.
According to our information, several undocumented migrants continue to receive bills of several dozen dollars for their children treated in the Quebec health network, with no possibility of reimbursement. “The facts reported are not acceptable,” said the minister in a written statement.
However, the legislative framework was modified in 2021 so that all children, regardless of place of birth, have access to health insurance coverage. In the morning, opposition groups in turn urged Quebec to respect its laws. “It makes me angry,” said Rosemont MP and spokesperson for Québec solidaire (QS) on health, Vincent Marissal, on Wednesday.
“I don’t understand why the health system is not aware of the laws that govern it,” protested the Parti Québécois (PQ) health spokesperson, Joël Arseneau.
The interim leader of the Liberal Party of Quebec, Marc Tanguay, calls on Mr. Dubé to “correct the situation quickly”. “I have, among other things, a county case to that effect, and it’s heartbreaking,” he said Wednesday.
“Almost every week”
At QS, we call these migrant children “RAMQ babies”. “We have them almost every week,” said Mr. Marissal. “I have an attaché who does pretty much just that. We spend our time chasing the RAMQ and then, sometimes, the minister himself. »
“There are mothers who experience much more severe postpartum depression because, when you have a $45,000 bill, you don’t have a job, and you are perhaps even under threat of expulsion, obviously your life is hell,” he added.
Christian Dubé assures that the law he passed in the last mandate had its effects. “There are nearly 34,000 children covered since the adoption of the law, i.e. 15,000 who were already registered when it came into force, to which 18,928 children have been added since June 2021,” his office wrote. “This is major and we must continue the work with the network partners. »