Now 2-Tier Health Care

Having linked to Allen Thompson's column on the Cons' immigration crackdown this morning, let's note one of the significant changes the Cons are making for medium-term Canadian residents (emphasis added):

Second – The government is introducing the new "“Parent and Grandparent Super Visa,”" which will be valid for up to 10 years. The multiple-entry visa will allow an applicant to remain in Canada for up to 24 months at a time without the need for renewal of their status...Parent and Grandparent Super Visa applicants will be required to obtain private Canadian health-care insurance for their stay in Canada.

So what impact does that requirement (which doesn't seem to exist for other forms of immigration figure to have on the makeup of Canada in the future? Most obviously, it will set up financial barriers for immigrants who would otherwise have a chance to reunite with family in Canada, ensuring that nobody gets into the country without enough spare wealth to buy private insurance.

But more striking are the potential structural consequences.

By imposing a mandatory system which provides easy business for private health insurers, the Cons will give a greater toe-hold to such insurers within Canada's health care system. And by decreeing that medium-term residents of Canada will be excluded from the social benefits of health care and thus left to fend for themselves, the Cons are taking a bite out of the principle of universality - which will presumably make it easier for them to tell the same immigrant communities later that the principle isn't worth defending.

Which is to say that the Cons' regressive immigration policy may end up damaging much more than just our reputation for openness to new arrivals. And it's well worth pushing back against that result.