Canadian Health Care System Not Perfect But Humane - Immigrants Not a Burden To Health Care
Posted: Monday, August 31, 2009
by Yangki Christine Akiteng
The Real People's Love Doctor
A lot has been said about the Canadian Health Care System. Up until now I have felt no need to say anything because close to 10 years living in Canada, I've never had to use the Canadian healthcare system. My family doesn't even have a Family Doctor, not because there is none available, we just don't yet have a reason to see one.
What's that got to do with being an immigrant?
Immigrants typically arrive in Canada with better-than-average health. In fact, many studies conducted in Canada and in the United States have established the existence of a so-called "healthy immigrant effect. Because potential immigrants are screened on medical and other health-related criteria before they are admitted to the country, they are usually healthier than the Canadian-born population. There is also a degree of self-selection in the originating countries, with applicants likely to be individuals with the stamina and motivation to undertake the rigours that immigration entails. (Statistics Canada website)
Health is something many new immigrants sometimes take for granted. Ironic words coming from someone born and raised in Africa. But as most Africans will say "if you live to be five, you've already proved survival of the fittest". It's no excuse for the reality of a very high infant mortality rate in the African continent, but it helps us live with the realities of where we come from. For some of us, after countless malaria attacks (in a remote a village with no access to a clinic/hospital), snake bites, scorpion bites, near death malnutrition/starvation etc. it's surprising that we even come out of it all looking like some "rich kid raised in a rich neighbourhood". But we do, and you can never tell by just looking.
When we immigrants arrive in Canada, the immigration officer hands us all these documents about living in Canada. They are a great help, but the greatest help comes from other "educated" immigrants who've been here a while. The very first immigrant education you get is:
1. Don't eat "their food" (fast food), you'll become weak. Next thing they do is take you to all the "ethnic food stores" where you can buy just about anything you'd buy in an African market back at home. Most of it though is "dried and packaged" something most Africans would never touch back in Africa, but hey, it's familiar, and where everything else is unfamiliar, familiar is good. It also cost a lot more than the food you buy at the grocery store, but the "educated" immigrants insist it pays off in the long run.
2. Never sit in the house alone and don't watch too much TV, you'll get depressed. You're then taken from one immigrant's house to the next and told, "When you start to feel lonely/sad, call someone" and "Don't believe everything you see on TV".
3. Save money to visit home/Africa, it renews your spirit and helps you survive an immigrant's life.
Great advice considering that Statistics Canada reports:
It has been hypothesized that with the passage of time, the health status of immigrants tends to converge toward that of the host population. In other words, the "healthy immigrant effect" diminishes over time. Some medical problems may arise as immigrants age like anyone else. Other problems may occur as immigrants are integrated and adopt behaviours that have negative health impacts. Other conditions may result from the process of immigration itself. Financial constraints, employment problems and the lack of a network of social support can each take a toll on well-being.
So here I am, in almost perfect health but very happy paying my taxes so others less "fortunate" than I (health-wise) get the healthcare they deserve. I don't care how my hard-earned money is taken from me or who gets to benefit from it, I care that everyone has that basic human right -- a right to a healthy life!
And for the recognition of that basic human right alone this immigrant is proud to call Canada her second home. Does our system need some improvement? Yes. But it's still one of the most humane healthcare systems in the world.
Although I do my best to live the "new immigrant lifestyle", at some point soon this healthy immigrant's health will be tested. Worried? Nope.
1. I can access healthcare anytime I need it. If I have to wait in line so that someone else who needs it more than I do gets it first, fine by me. If I die waiting, still fine by me that even in my death I stepped aside so someone else might live. What greater love is there than that one lays down his/her life for another. We don't always get that opportunity to love to the fullest extent of love.
2. My life may be a lot different from my mother's, aunties' and grandmother's but I still hope to live to be 100 years plus like my grandmother (Bless her!). I place more trust in the grace of God and in the power of the human spirit than I do in a health care system.
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Top-level comments on this article: (3 total)Thank you for this compassionate, empathetic and well-reasoned account of the very real benefits of universal healthcare and it being treated as a right and not a privilege. I greatly appreciated it.Please log in to respond to this comment.
Thanks for writing on this subject from an immigrants point of view. My wife, who is a landed immigrant from the USA, gets so upset when those in the States bash our health care system. Like you said, it's not perfect, but I think we have it pretty good here.Please log in to respond to this comment.
Christine,I am so saddened by the horrible rhetoric coming from the mouth of those who are have been charged with the care of "the least of these", namely the Christian far right. I just do not understand how it follows compassion when what they are so stridently fighting for is to keep the status quo for themselves; to protect their own money and "choices". I am having a genuine crisis (as I know you've already experienced) over whether I in good conscience call myself "Christian" anymore. I pretty much now tell people that I follow Jesus. I'm just so sad...Please log in to respond to this comment.
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