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Omega Budhathoki with the University of Winnipeg Students’ Association said international students have waited too long for health-care coverage to be restored. (Jeff Stapleton\/CBC)<\/p>\nInternational students held a rally Wednesday to call on Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew to make good on a promise to bring back their health-care coverage.<\/p>\n
Kinew’s NDP pledged during the 2023 election campaign that brought the part to power that his government would reinstitute the coverage, rescinded by the Progressive Conservative government in 2018.<\/p>\n
Students at the small gathering outside the premier’s constituency office in Winnipeg Wednesday said two years later, they’re still not eligible for provincial health insurance.<\/p>\n
Omega Budhathoki, vice-president of external affairs at the University of Winnipeg Students’ Association, said that means students must pay for private insurance that only provides them limited coverage.<\/p>\n
“Students pay over $1,300 on their basic plan, which does not cover a lot of things like prescription drugs, so you still would need some extended coverage,” Budhathoki said. <\/p>\n
Omega Budhathoki with the University of Winnipeg Students’ Association said international students have waited too long for health-care coverage to be restored. (Jeff Stapleton\/CBC)<\/p>\n
“A lot of people live in a lot of fear \u2026 saying, ‘OK I can’t afford to be sick,'” she said. <\/p>\n
“Students are here to get education, not live in anxiety and fear to just keep themselves alive.”<\/p>\n