![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/IMG_3962-FOR-WEB.jpg\")
<\/a>\u201cIt\u2019s unfortunate that they\u2019re not getting the benefit of having free medical care or coverage,\u201d says Umulisa. \u201cI think it\u2019s very unfortunate that this announcement just came out, and instead of eliminating the money that the international students have been paying, they doubled it, which, to me, is a little ridiculous and unfair. International students are getting to pay twice the amount because everybody else is not paying it. I find that very unfair.\u201d (Provincial health minister Adrian Dix was unavailable for comment before press time.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Umulisa says that from the perspective of the CCSS\u2014an organization that represents students and runs campaigns for international students\u2014this was not the right choice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTalking to my colleagues and Michel [Turcotte, CCSS executive director] as well, we\u2019re thinking about ways in which we can kind of urge the government to maybe eliminate the fees,\u201d says Umulisa, \u201cand, if we cannot, reduce the price.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The specifics of those ways have not yet been determined, says Umulisa; one campaign the CCSS is currently running that may help is called Fairness to International Students (international students currently pay more for tuition than domestic students do).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI feel like expanding on that, and saying that fairness is not only through tuition but access to services the students get when they come here,\u201d says Umulisa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Camosun College manager of international student services Gulcan Barclay says that, like the health insurance the CCSS offers, the health insurance the province offers comes at a cost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt is unfortunate that, when the premiums are going away\u2026 international students still need to pay, but that comes from them being temporary in the country and finding a way to offer them these services, I suppose,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Barclay says that it\u2019s important for students to plan ahead, and the college can assist with that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe also include health insurance information during orientation,\u201d she says, \u201cso we will say how it works and the fees associated to it during the orientation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Having MSP premiums eliminated is a good thing, she says, but it\u2019s unfortunate that the onus now falls on international students. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe were one of the last provinces that were charging [MSP premiums],\u201d she says. \u201cThat\u2019s a great development for British Columbians, I would say.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It may seem as though international students are having to pay extra costs, says Barclay, but she says she doesn\u2019t see it that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cStudying abroad is expensive,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s one of the important things anyone needs to plan when they\u2019re going abroad\u2014making sure that proper health insurance is in place, and plan ahead for that.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Second-year English Language Development student Rick Susays that this increase is not good and it makes him feel bad because his parents worked hard so that he could come and study here. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI [get] my money from my family, so they need to give me more money than before. My parents will have to work harder than before,\u201d he says. \u201cI feel so bad.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
First-year Economics student Tony Ho hadn\u2019t heard about the increase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWow; that\u2019s too much. It\u2019s way too much. They\u2019re just taking our money,\u201d he says. \u201cI don\u2019t think the international\u2014some of the international students\u2014could afford that much money, so I think government should work on it and lower the cost.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
First-year Arts and Science student Brhen Sandhu was notified of the increase by a letter from the government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWithout MSP, we are going to pay a lot,\u201d she says. \u201cBut MSP is a necessity to us even if we have to pay $35 or $75.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Umulisa agrees that the elimination of MSP premiums is generally positive, and she says that health care is a \u201cbasic human right\u201d for everybody. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPeople should not have to struggle to pay for it, or access it; the elimination of the MSP [premiums] to me was a good thing,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Umulisa says that the CCSS is in solidarity with international students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to support them throughout all of this,\u201d says Umulisa. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The provincial government announced on Thursday, August 1 that Medical Service Plan (MSP) premiums will be eliminated on January 1, 2020. However, starting Sunday, September 1, 2019, all international students in BC will pay a monthly health-care coverage fee of $37.50 as well as their current monthly MSP premium of $37.50. When the MSP premiums […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17996,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,235],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-august-28-2019"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17994"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17994\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17997,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17994\/revisions\/17997"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}