Ukrainians who fled the war will no longer be eligible for RAMQ | War in Ukraine

In a café in the Côte-des-Neiges district of Montreal, Zhanna caresses her belly which is starting to round and is delighted to be able to give birth to a child in a country at peace. However, there is a downside: his health insurance card will expire in February 2025, like that of many Ukrainians established here.

What worries her is that she doesn’t know if she will give birth just before or just after the end of her card’s validity period. The difference could cost him $30,000.

This young woman is from the Kharkiv region, devastated by bombs and now occupied by Russia. Arriving in Canada in October 2022, she benefited, like her husband, from the Canada-Ukraine Emergency Travel Authorization (AVUCU), created by the federal government from the start of the bombings.

With a degree in hospitality, Zhanna works as a room attendant in a Montreal hotel. Her husband is a cabinetmaker for a company. Immediately when we arrived in Quebec, we started working. Even now I’m 22 weeks pregnant and still workingshe emphasizes in very good French, which she had started to learn during an internship in Paris.

Ottawa decided this year to extend theAVOID until 2027. Zhanna, who wants to stay in Quebec, therefore renewed her open work permit for three years until October 2027.

She then wanted to renew her Quebec health insurance card, which was expiring in October 2024. To her great surprise, the new card was only valid until February 2025. “They only extended it for three months” , she said with disappointment and concern.

Her due date is February 28. But a week before, a week after, you never know whenshe points out. If, for example, I gave birth in March 2025, I would no longer have a health insurance card [à ce moment-là]. That means I would have to pay for the birth.

The price of a birth in Quebec can reach $30,000. A single night spent in the hospital costs around $5,000.

It’s huge for people who aren’t rich.says Lena Leblanc, a Ukrainian who has lived in Quebec for a long time and volunteers with new arrivals.

They work for minimum wage. And if there are complications, if the baby is premature, if the mother needs something, if she has an infection, anything, it’s going to cost thousands and thousands of dollars.

Zhanna and her husband will not be able to afford it. They wonder whether they should change provinces and go to Ontario, for example, to continue to benefit from health insurance. The idea does not enchant this 28-year-old woman, who love Quebec and who prefer to speak French.

Return to Ukraine? It’s very, very dangerous. I no longer have a house there because of the warZhanna answers. Almost all of her family and friends have left the country, while here she is well looked after. I have my mother, who also works, my father-in-law and my husband. We all live together. I’m not going to give birth there alone!

A mother in CHSLD

Sergiy, an employee of the City of Montreal, shows a photo on his phone. This is Mariupol, my mother’s house! A ruined building with glassless windows.

Sergiy’s mother, who is now 79 years old, no longer has a home or a husband, killed by a bombing, and no longer knows in which country she is. She’s losing her mind.

Her son realized this when he brought her to Canada and took her in with him at first. She had to be watched all the time: she could go outside and get lost. Losing her autonomy, she was able to be accommodated in a seniors’ residence with Ukrainian staff, then in a CHSLD of the Rosemont district, because the RPA closed in order to carry out renovation work.

Sergiy has just called the Régie de l’assurance santé du Québec (RAMQ). February next year is overthe official told him.

He already benefited from an extension, obtained by the office of the deputy for Rosemont, Vincent Marissal. This is a cover discretionaryas he sometimes grants himself out of the kindness of his heart. In this case, it was to avoid throwing an old lady with Alzheimer’s into the street.

But what will happen after the new deadline? We have to go back to the office again, do some [appels]make [démarches]sometimes personally, with the ministerreplies the member for Québec solidaire, to obtain, or not, a discretionary extension.

Sergiy, with his blue-collar job maintaining municipal parks, will not be able to pay for the residential and long-term care center for his mother. He inquired about the price.

The CHSLD without the RAMQit costs around $50,000 per month! he exclaims. On the website of the CIUSSS of the West Island of Montreal, for example, we can read that the rate is $41,900 per month for non-residents of Canada.

Of course, in her current state, this old woman could not return to Ukraine, to a destroyed and occupied city, without anyone there to look after her. She would also not be able to move elsewhere in Canada. I can’t send my mother alone to another province, said her son. And I can’t sell my house, change jobs. Changing jobs for my wife is really too complicated!

Single parent and cancer sufferer

Last case, that of Olena Karlash, 38 years old. Arriving in Montreal a little over two years ago, this mother of an eight-year-old boy is employed as a cashier in a grocery store in Saint-Léonard.

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About a year after her arrival in Quebec, Olena learned that she had cancer of the thyroid, a gland located in the neck. She has already had one surgery, but will have to have more and take medication for the rest of her life with regular appointments “to make sure it doesn’t come back.”

His Quebec health insurance is valid until summer 2025, despite his work permit valid until 2027.Afterwards, I don’t know what I should doshe said, worried. She sees all her Ukrainian compatriots being refused the renewal of their card. They are told that with their status, they are no longer eligible for RAMQ.

Really, I’m scared, because I’m alone here with my son. I’m afraid I won’t have enough money for medicine and doctor’s appointments. Without medication I can’t live, that’s all.

This single mother with a minimum wage cashier job will not have the means to pay her salaries. She is also afraid for her eight-year-old boy, who depends entirely on her. If something happens to me, he’s the one who will really suffer too.

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Call for compassion

Of the 300,000 Ukrainians welcomed to Canada, 30,000 chose Quebec, including 25,000 in the Montreal region.

We said: “Come, we’ll help you!” So, what do we do with this world? asks Michael Shwec, president of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress for Quebec. Quebecers not only opened their hands, their doors, they also opened their wallets to helphe recalls. It is in the values ​​of Quebecers.

He highlights the efforts of the Quebec government which, upon the arrival of the Ukrainians, immediately offered health insurance coverage, valid for the duration of their permit, the AVUCU. We were so proud of Quebec! Then, three years later, the government said: “Okay, it’s over!”he laments.

The war is here again. The need for shelters is still there. We would like our deputies and our ministers to still demonstrate the compassion they had three years ago.

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In the case of asylum seekers or refugees, health care coverage is automatic. But in this case, the Ukrainians arrived on an open work permit, a type of permit that does not offer them this protection, except for exceptions provided in the eligibility rules of the RAMQ.

The political decision was taken to admit them to the RAMQ for the initial duration of the programAVUCU, i.e. until February 2025.

On November 5, the office of Isabelle Poulet, CAQ MP for Laporte, in Longueuil, informed a Ukrainian woman by email that the Quebec government, during this period, offered a basket of services to these people, including RAMQ. The government ended this basket of services in July 2024.

To be eligible for the RAMQ with an open work permit, for example, you must be waiting for permanent residence after obtaining the Quebec selection certificate.

A large number of Ukrainians have not yet reached this stage. It is a process that takes time.

Stuck between Quebec and Ottawa

Meanwhile, in Rosemont, the historic neighborhood of Ukrainians, calls and files are piling up at the office of the Québec solidaire MP.

He emphasizes that the decision to end the coverage of the RAMQ for Ukrainians indeed comes from Minister Dubé himselfas his office confirmed to him. This is clearly a political decision.