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The 2012 Cuts to Refugee Health Coverage in Canada: The Anatomy of a Social Policy Failure

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 February 2016

Paul Sheridan  and
Ketan Shankardass
Paul Sheridan*
Affiliation:
Winnipeg, Manitoba
Ketan Shankardass*
Affiliation:
Wilfrid Laurier University
*
433 Lyndale Dr., Winnipeg MB, R2H 1M8, Email: paulcsheridan@gmail.com
Department of Health Sciences, Wilfrid Laurier University, 75 University Ave W, Waterloo ON, N2L 3C5, Email: kshankardass@wlu.ca.
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Abstract

In 2012, Canada's federal government announced cuts to refugee health coverage. Evidence suggesting that the cuts represent a social policy failure has since been accumulating, including the 2014 Federal Court ruling ordering their reversal. This explanatory case study uncovers the problem definition process that led policy development by applying coding methods to governmental publications, transcripts of parliamentary proceedings and internal governmental correspondence obtained under the Access to Information Act. The systematic analysis identifies avoidable gaps that occurred and proposes an avenue for strengthening future federal social policy processes so as to avoid negative outcomes such as those that resulted here.

Résumé

En 2012, le gouvernement fédéral canadien annonça des coupures dans la couverture des soins de santé pour les réfugiés. Des preuves qui laissent croire que ces coupures représentent une politique sociale ratée s'accumulent depuis, y compris sa défaite devant la Cour fédérale en 2014. Cette étude de cas explicative révèle le processus de définition de problème qui a guidé le développement de la politique en appliquant des méthodes de codage aux publications gouvernementales, aux procès-verbaux de délibérations parlementaires, et à la correspondance gouvernementale interne obtenue en vertu de la Loi sur l'accès à l'information. L'analyse systématique identifie des lacunes évitables qui se sont produites et propose des moyens de renforcer les processus de politique sociale futurs afin d'éviter des résultats négatifs tels ceux ayant abouti dans ce cas.

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Political Science/Revue canadienne de science politique , Volume 48 , Issue 4 , December 2015 , pp. 905 - 931
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Political Science Association (l'Association canadienne de science politique) and/et la Société québécoise de science politique 2016 

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