Canada Refusing Immigration Of Disabled Children Due To Cost To Nationalized Healthcare

Canada Refusing Immigration Of Disabled Children Due To Cost To Nationalized Healthcare

Home - by Cardigan - March 31, 2012 - 16:30 America/New_York - 7 Comments

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Pat Dollard

?and I always thought Canada and its healthcare system were supposed to be so benevolent.

Ottawa Citizen:

VICTORIA ? A popular University of Victoria psychology instructor and his family have been denied permanent residency in Canada because his four-year-old son has autism.

While Jeffrey Niehaus is preparing to move his wife, Jane, and two kids back to his native U.S., he?s sounding the alarm about problems with the Canadian immigration system, which turned down the family?s application for permanent residency on the basis that autism treatment would be too costly.

?We understand some safeguards have to be put in place,? Niehaus said Wednesday.

?I think that (Citizenship and Immigration Canada) were unable or unwilling to balance . . . the contributions we could make as taxpayers and the amount it would cost (to treat the child).?

Allowing the family to stay would have been a mutually beneficial arrangement, Niehaus said.

?The contributions we could have made would have been significant and the math didn?t work out the way CIC projected. I kind of wish . . . there could have been some other mechanism in there to take more things into account.?

Jeffrey?s wife is a registered thoracic nurse at Royal Jubilee Hospital in Victoria. Their son, Kurt, was slow to speak and at when he was 18 months old, they began looking for a possible reason. He was diagnosed with autism, a developmental disorder characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, in the summer of 2010.

That same year, the couple?s daughter Maria was born prematurely.

The diagnosis of autism caught the attention of officials processing the family?s bid for permanent residency status, and it was subsequently turned down.

It?s difficult to calculate costs for a child with autism because the condition covers a broad range, with symptoms ranging from mild to severe.

?You can say (a child) is or is not on the spectrum, but that gives you very little information on what kind of support they will need for the rest of their lives,? said Niehaus.

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