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Student stuck in Canada with Shs430m hospital bill
Mr Calvin Lugalambi needs financial assistance. PHOTO/ courtesy
What you need to know:
- The Ugandan student and his family need support to raise the funds for his 24-day stay in two hospitals in Canada.
A Ugandan international student intending to join civil engineering course in Canada in September at the University of Manitoba is stuck with hospital bills of more than $123,000 (about Shs435 million).
In 2018, Calvin Lugalambi travelled from Uganda to Canada, joined his twin brother, Conrad, with the hope of pursuing post-secondary education.
But when he fell ill in May, Conrad told CBC News that: “My family was scared. They are thousands of miles away.… All they can do is call and hope for the best.”
Lugalambi completed his foundational courses at the International College of Manitoba but felt severe abdominal pain in May 2021 that led to his admission and subsequent emergency surgery at St Boniface Hospital after a referral from Winnipeg’s Victoria General Hospital. He had intestinal obstruction.
CBC News reported that Lugalambi and his family needed support to raise the funds for his 24-day stay in two Winnipeg hospitals in Manitoba, a Canadian Province.
Lugalambi said he shared his story with CBC to help highlight the plight of international students affected by a 2018 provincial law that put them off universal health care.
Privately, universities have tried to get insurance for international students but for Lugalambi, he had switched schools without knowing the implications and his insurance had expired.
He tried to seek help from those he knew, including his school but on one could help.
What Lugalambi did not know that perhaps other internationals students are already facing is that he had ‘to buy additional insurance to cover the time he was between schools.’
“I’m a newcomer here. I don’t know the rules,” Lugalambi said.
CBC News reported that the International College of Manitoba’s coverage provider, Guard.Me, issued retroactive insurance dating back to May 4 — two days after he was diagnosed with multiple adhesions in his small intestine.
Since Lugalambi had not yet joined the University of Monitoba as a student, he could not benefit from a partnership between the university and health care providers offering insurance to international university students.
As Lugalambi struggled to get his way around, he got Covid-19 infections, extending his initial two-week stay at the hospital to three weeks as bills continued to pile in thousands of dollars each night.
One of Lugalambi’s friends recently set up a GoFundMe page to help raised about Shs441million to foot his hospital bills and cater for expenses for his mother who travelled to Winnipeg to attend to him.
The hospital has suggested a payment plan of $1,000 per month, about Shs35m which the student says he cannot afford.
“That’s not too kind for me at the moment, because I’m unable to pay. We don’t possess that money. I have to worry about my next semester — I don’t know where that’s going to come from,” Lugalambi told CBC News.
Lugalambi is said to be paying ‘more than double what the fees are for domestic students.’
He appealed to Monitoba Health who said they could not help him.
“I don’t want my stay in Canada to be affected by this. I want to finish my education and progress well and be a constructive member of society, as I intended to be,” Lugalambi told CBC News.
Many international students in Manitoba have been affected by a 2018, Manitoba’s Progressive Conservative government amendment to the Health Services Insurances Act, repealing a clause that gave international post-secondary students access to universal health care.
Schools have provided private insurance options for international students since.
