The Harper government’s 2012 refugee policy reforms included new restrictions on claimants’ access to public healthcare. The reforms saved money, speeded up the determination process, and deterred “bogus” claimants. But they also offended the Charter rights of refugees, according to this summer’s startling decision by Federal Court Justice Anne Mactavish. Nadeem Esmail and Raj Sharma compare Canadian refugee health policies to those of other developed nations and wonder how the judge – or anyone – could find them “cruel and unusual”…

Americans considering the consequences of the various health care reform proposals being proffered by President Obama and Congress would be wise to consider the Canadian experience. Canadians are ill-served by their inaccessible but expensive government-run Medicare program, whose structure is defined by the federal government.