Students at York University are planning to boycott their on-campus health clinic, York Lanes Health Center, after it was revealed that a $15 per visit copayment was being charged to only international students.
Domestic students at York are covered by the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP), but this option is not available to international students, who are instead covered by a University Health Insurance Plan (UHIP). UHIP is similar to OHIP in the medical coverage that it offers students, which includes everything from x-rays to dental surgery. The cost of UHIP depends on the status of the student, the length of coverage desired, and the length of coverage that the applicant’s dependent currently has.
Despite having already paid for coverage, any UHIP student that walks into York Lanes Health Center still has to pay the $15 copay, or else they won’t receive their treatment. These $15 are only being applied to those covered with UHIP, meaning that no domestic OHIP holders are getting charged.
Pavel Castillo, a second-year York student and executive at the International Students at York [ISAY], said York Lanes is the only clinic that charges this copay.
“No other clinic off-campus has such a policy. Let’s say a student goes off campus and uses their UHIP, they wouldn’t be required to pay those $15. It’s only this clinic,” Castillo said.
Castillo said most students don’t know about the $15 per visit charge until they’re in need of treatment. “Until you walk into the clinic and get told you have to pay it, people usually don’t know [about it] until they’re there.”
Alison Green, a medical affairs officer at the Appletree Medial Group, which owns York Lanes, explained that the $15 copay came as a result of a change in the UHIP insurers policy toward community physicians. “We’ve always accepted UHIP,” Green said.
“We are now accepting UHIP assignment, with a $15 copay, which approximates the actual visit fee recommended by the Ontario Medical Association.”
In response to this fee, which Castillo calls ‘prejudice’, ISAY has been boycotting York Lanes since September. Along with the boycott, petitions have been put in place as an attempt to raise awareness among students at York. “We have several petitions circulating, there’s a lot of interest.”
“We’ve had a lot of emails. We’re working with York Federation of Students, and a couple of clubs and organizations are endorsing us,” Castillo said.
Castillo said he is upset that international students seem to be getting targeted. “It’s kind of underhanded. I would call it a discriminatory fee because maybe it doesn’t say that it’s only charging international students, but it applies to people who have UHIP, which are only international students.”