Negotiating precarity: Recent immigrants’ perceptions of waiting for public healthcare in Ontario, Canada

Canada is widely known for its universal publicly funded health care system. While its health care system is an important part of Canadian identity, recent immigrants living in some provinces and territories are not covered by the publicly funded healthcare system until they have met a minimum residency requirement. This article seeks to understand the multiple manifestations of financial and emotional precarity that recent immigrants face as they navigate a lack of access to health care during their first three months of arrival in Ontario. This paper draws on qualitative semi-structured interview data from 46 recent immigrants who came from 12 different countries and had been living in Ontario, Canada. We found that the wait period to obtain health care often added to the prohibitive costs associated with immigration and settlement. During the wait period, recent immigrants faced financial burdens and their inability to access publicly funded hospitals and medical services when needed which resulted in feelings of vulnerability, anxiety, and emotional hardship. Given the financial and emotional precarities faced by recent immigrants during the wait period, we argue that the Canadian ‘universal’ healthcare system excludes and creates barriers to timely and equitable access to healthcare services for recent immigrants. We recommend to permanently eliminate the wait period policy to ensure the health and wellbeing of recent immigrants.