Madam Speaker, let us talk about a two-tiered health care system, not the fictional version that the Liberals and the NDP dust off every election to scare Canadians but a real one that actually exists. There is a two-tiered health care system in Canada today, but it is one that the left-wing politicians suddenly refuse to touch. This two-tiered system has a name; it is called the interim federal health program. This program was originally created to ensure that refugees fleeing genuine persecution had temporary health care while they transitioned into our provincial health care systems. Now it is being exploited by bogus asylum claimants.
Most Canadians know what the public health care system covers: doctors, hospitals and medically necessary care. That is what the Canada Health Act guarantees, and that is what Canadians are proud of. However, Canadians also know what it does not cover; it does not cover premium benefits like vision care, physiotherapy, counselling, assistive devices, occupational therapy and home care.
In 2016, the Liberals expanded the program to give supplemental health benefits to asylum seekers. According to the government, supplemental health benefits under the interim federal health program include vision care, counselling, assistive devices, home visits, nursing homes, transportation, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy and interpretation services. Those are the government's words, not mine. These are not basic emergency services; they are deluxe health benefits that millions of Canadians pay for out of pocket or earn through their workplace.
However, that is not the most troubling part of the program. There is a group of people receiving these benefits that the government has tried to hide from Canadians. I am going to read from the government's own eligibility page for the interim federal health program. This is publicly available for anyone willing to look at it. Under the heading “Refugee claimants”, it states, in the government's words, that coverage is provided if “your claim for refugee protection has been rejected by the [Immigration and Refugee Board]”. It says “rejected”, not “pending” and not “under review”.
The Immigration and Refugee Board, the very body the government created to make these determinations, reviewed a claim and said no. A legal body made a legal determination, and the Liberal government's response to that rejection is to keep those individuals enrolled in the program with full benefits, including the deluxe supplemental health benefits that Canadians are not entitled to. How long does this continue? The government's own website answers that too. In its words, it says that coverage remains in place until “you leave Canada.” Why would anyone in that position choose to leave Canada?
Let me be absolutely clear. Conservatives support providing emergency and life-saving care to anyone in this country, including someone whose claim has been rejected. That is a basic humanitarian principle, and we stand by it, but it is not what the program does for rejected claimants. It does not restrict them to emergency care; it keeps them enrolled in a full program, including every supplemental benefit I have described, for as long as they remain in Canada. Vision care, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, home care and speech therapy are all fully covered for people who the refugee board has already said should not be here.
Because the government has allowed a historic backlog to paralyze the immigration system, with claims taking years to process, the number of people in the program is staggering. The Parliamentary Budget Officer projects there will be over 680,000 people who are eligible beneficiaries by 2030. Because of the Conservative-led investigation at the health committee, the Parliamentary Budget Officer also revealed that the interim federal health program will cost Canadians over $1.5 billion by the year 2030.
To put it in perspective, that is up from approximately $66 million from a decade ago. In under a decade, the program described as limited and temporary has grown by more than 1,000%. It is $1.5 billion every year for a program called interim. That is the word I keep returning to: “interim”, which means temporary. As I said earlier, the program was designed to be a bridge for genuine refugees who needed care but were not covered under the provincial insurance plans.
When a program costs $80 million a year and serves a defined, time-limited purpose, it is reasonable to call it interim. When it costs over $1.5 billion a year, is growing every single year and has no ceiling and no off-ramp, it is not interim anymore; it is a permanent, expanding entitlement that is being exploited by the people it was not designed to help. It costs $1.5 billion every year, there is a backlog stretching years, and Canadians are waiting behind all of it.
Think about what this means for the Canadian family. Think about a mother in this country who has been waiting months to see a specialist. Her doctor referred her, but she is still waiting in a system that is already stretched beyond its limits. Genuine refugees are also on the wait-lists, seeking the care they deserve. They are playing by the rules, but ahead of all those Canadians and genuine refugees on that wait-list are bogus asylum claimants, people whose claim the refugee board has already reviewed and rejected. Think about that. Six million Canadians do not have a family doctor right now. The average wait time to see a specialist is around 30 weeks, and over 100,000 Canadians have died since 2018 while waiting for care.
When rejected fraudulent asylum claimants are on the wait list, they add to the backlog and reduce timely care for Canadians and genuine refugees. It is not only the bogus asylum claimants who are exploiting the program; reports suggest that the medical community may be exploiting it as well. The health committee heard testimony from doctors that physicians are billing the interim federal health program up to five times the rate they charge for Canadian patients, with little oversight, if any. According to the program's fee guide, there are no maximum billing limits for many services under the program.
Canada is a generous country. We always have been. We welcome people who are fleeing genuine persecution, and we should. Conservatives believe in immigration and health care systems that are compassionate and fair, but fair means something. Fair means that the nurse in Winnipeg should not have to pick up an extra shift to pay for her glasses, while the federal government hands that same benefit for free to someone who had their fraudulent claim rejected by the refugee board and has not left.
Fair means that the mother trying to get her son the care he needs should not be on a wait-list behind the people whose legal right to be in this country has been denied. Fair means that when the Parliamentary Budget Officer reports that this program will cost Canadians over $1.5 billion a year with no accountability, the government has an obligation to act.
Here is what the Conservatives are proposing: When the Immigration and Refugee Board rejects a claim, health coverage must be restricted to emergency and life-saving care only. The government should also review all the benefits provided by the program to restore fairness to the people who fund the health care system.
The Liberals and left-wing politicians spent decades warning Canadians about a two-tiered health care system, but they have built a two-tiered system. It is called the interim federal health program. It is a program that bogus asylum claimants exploit at the expense of Canadians and genuine refugees. It is time to restore this program to support the people it was designed to serve.