Title: The economic burden of immigrants with HIV/AIDS: When to say no?

Authors: Peter C. Coyte, Kednapa Thavorn, Hana Dhanji

Addresses: CHSRF/CIHR Health Services Chair, Department of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation (HPME), Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, 155 College Street 4th Floor, Toronto, Ontario M5T 3M6, Canada. ' CHSRF/CIHR Health Services Chair, Department of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation (HPME), Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, 155 College Street 4th Floor, Toronto, Ontario M5T 3M6, Canada. ' CHSRF/CIHR Health Services Chair, Department of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation (HPME), Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, 155 College Street 4th Floor, Toronto, Ontario M5T 3M6, Canada

Abstract: The Canadian Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) of 2001 outlines the conditions under which individuals may be granted or denied admission to Canada. The Act stipulates that applications for residence will be rejected if an applicant|s health is likely to generate excessive demand on Canadian health or social services. The purpose of this paper is to assess the thresholds used to define excessive demand and to apply these thresholds to persons with HIV/AIDS. Three findings are reported: firstly, the current threshold for excessive demand is too low and a statistically more appropriate threshold is three-fold greater; secondly, there is an inverse relationship between HIV/AIDS disease progression and healthcare costs and finally, comparison of disease cost estimates to new thresholds for inadmissibility allows classification to depend on individual characteristics, including age, sex and health status, and the time horizon over which each applicant|s projected demand is assessed.

Keywords: Canada; HIV; AIDS; human immunodeficiency virus; acquired immune deficiency syndrome; economic impact; economy; immigrants; IRPA; Immigration and Refugee Protection Act 2001; legislation; residence applications; health services; social services; thresholds; excessive demand; statistics; statistical factors; inverse relationships; disease progression; healthcare costs; cost estimates; inadmissibility; classification characteristics; age; gender; sex; health status; time horizons; assessments; globalisation; business advancement.

DOI: 10.1504/JGBA.2010.032764

Journal for Global Business Advancement, 2010 Vol.3 No.1, pp.60 - 78

Published online: 20 Apr 2010 *

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