Insurance provider agrees to cover $35K medical bill for Manitoba mom who was international student
CBC
A Manitoba mother of three will no longer have to answer calls from collection agencies or worry about paying thousands of dollars in medical bills, after her private insurer agreed to retroactively cover the costs — following her decision to go public with her story.
But advocates say even though her bills will be covered, the woman's case highlights a major gap in Canada's health-care system.
Ololade Fashina, 29, owed almost $35,000 after giving birth to her son during a short window where her student medical insurance had lapsed and her work permit hadn't arrived.
The situation left the former international student feeling desperate, helpless and worried about how she could ever pay off this debt.
"I don't make this money in a year," she told CBC last week, before learning her insurer would cover the costs.
That bill, she said, would "affect my three kids.… They won't have the good life I want to give them."
Fashina's ordeal began after she went to a clinic in January 2021, when she was 29 weeks pregnant with her third child.
Doctors noticed her placenta was no longer producing nutrients — a huge risk to the baby. Fashina was told she would have to be admitted and if she left, her baby could die in utero.
The timing couldn't have been worse for the young mother, originally from Nigeria. She had graduated from the University of Manitoba in October 2020 and applied for a work permit.
Processing of those permits was delayed at the time, however, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Her student medical insurance had been extended to cover her until the end of 2020, but after that, she would be without coverage until the permit arrived.
Fashina says she knew she didn't have insurance coverage when she went to hospital in January 2021.
But "[the doctor] said, 'The baby is not OK.'"
She wound up staying eight days at St. Boniface Hospital in Winnipeg before giving birth to a baby boy, Ayodeji, who was delivered prematurely on Jan. 15.
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