Medical follow-up for pregnant migrant women should be free, says report

Pregnant migrant women should have free access to medical services and drugs required for pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum care, an interministerial committee concluded in a report tabled Thursday.

Currently, many pregnant migrant women are not covered by any health insurance scheme. They must therefore pay, even to give birth in a hospital in the public network.

In addition to the free medical services required by pregnancy, the report “Portrait of pregnant women without health coverage in Quebec” offers several solutions to better take care of women who are in this situation.

Thus, the interdepartmental working group suggests allowing women not covered by health insurance (RAMQ), and who intend to stay in Quebec for more than six months, to benefit from integrated perinatal and early childhood and OLO follow-up offered to low-income women.

The report also proposes eliminating the 200% surcharge for services surrounding pregnancy monitoring and care during and after childbirth.

Remember that the interdepartmental committee had been asked by the Minister of Health and Social Services, Christian Dubé, to paint an overall picture of the situation of pregnant women without health insurance in Quebec. He was to write a report presenting solutions taking into account possible ways to improve access to health care for these women, at the end of 2021.

Minister Dubé took note of the solutions proposed in this report and indicated in a press release that he intends to “analyze them thoroughly” in order to adopt “the best possible approach”.