COW – Interim Federal Health Program (IFHP) – June 9, 2025

Key Facts and Figures

• The IFHP provided healthcare coverage to 623,365 eligible beneficiaries in fiscal year 2024–2025, including 440,537 asylum claimants, with expenses totaling $896.5M.
• IRCC works with a network of over 150,000 registered health providers to ensure that beneficiaries are well-supported and can access medical care overseas and upon arrival in Canada.

Key Messages

• Through Budget 2024, the government invested $411.2M in the IFHP for 2024–2025, topping up existing funding, ensuring that refugees and asylum claimants, as well as other uniquely vulnerable foreign nationals such as immigration detainees, have access to healthcare coverage to address urgent and essential medical needs.
• A further $232.9M was provided through 2024–2025 Supplementary Estimates (B), as part of an off-cycle funding decision. This was in response to increased demand on the IFHP stemming from sustained pressures facing the asylum system.
• Taking into account all funding sources, total IFHP allocations for 2024–2025 were $896.5M. This represents an increase of $306.1M compared to 2023–2024, as Canada continues to respond to elevated asylum claim volumes.

Supplementary Information

• The IFHP covers the cost of basic health services (e.g., hospital and physician care) aligned with provincial and territorial health insurance, and limited supplemental health services (e.g., mental health counselling, disability supports, emergency dental care, and prescription medication) on par with medical benefits provided to social assistance recipients.
• IFHP coverage is provided to specific migrant groups, including resettled refugees and asylum claimants, during their period of ineligibility for provincial or territorial health insurance plans and programs.
• The overall cost of the IFHP has increased year-over-year due to sustained growth in the eligible population. Specifically, the IFHP’s client base has increased from 90,328 in 2015–2016 to 623,365 beneficiaries in 2024–2025. Over two-thirds of these beneficiaries are asylum claimants, making them the largest sub-group within the Program.
• IFHP costs are driven in part by the volume of asylum claimants in Canada each year as well as the accumulation of past asylum claimants awaiting a decision on their claim or removal from Canada.