Sandy Lee

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Decisions surrounding health care, particularly who pays for what, are some of the most contentious and sensitive that our government faces. We have seen this over the past few years as we have attempted to resolve the inconsistencies between uninsured supplementary health benefits programs in the NWT.

Later today I will be tabling the Report of the Supplementary Health Benefits Joint Working Group. The report has been developed using our Legislative Assembly’s consensus process, in a partnership of Executive Council and the Standing Committee on Priorities and Planning...

Mr. Chairman, the way to look at that is that we in the Territories provide medical travel more generously than what NIHB does. So the federal government doesn’t cover for the kind of medical travel that we do. So where we can get reimbursement from the federal government, we get those. Then our aboriginal Dene/Inuit residents are the same as all the other residents and our government provides what we would provide non-aboriginal people. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, as I have stated, the Joint Working Group, which was made up of six Members, came up with a number of recommendations and we are going to try and work through those and I am coming back with an implementation schedule/work plan on how to do them. It’s our wish to get it done within the life of this Assembly. Thank you.

As I stated, I will get back to the Member with the details.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Absolutely correct. I couldn’t say it any better and next week I am going to come to the table and say how we are going to try to get it down, as much as possible, of what needs to be done.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is right that this issue was brought up. I believe I followed up on it with the status of what was happening at the time, but I don’t have the most recent updates. I will commit to getting back to the Member on that.

The Supplementary Health Policy that was rescinded would have come into effect on Monday. That’s what I said. But it’s not. It’s gone. I said that.

On Monday I will be making an announcement about how we move forward to look at the recommendations made by the Joint Working Group. What I was saying was had that Supplementary Health Benefits Policy not been rescinded, we would have been able to have coverage for those working poor that we were trying to extend the coverage to. Thank you.

That’s what happens right now. NIHB, then Supp Health. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Members, it sounds like they’re hung up on that sentence in the Minister’s statement that said I’ll be making announcements regarding the implementation of these changes. What changes? What changes are the three paragraphs prior to that sentence? Changes: to require the use of third-party insurance as the first option; a pharmaceutical strategy to include generic drugs, drug pricing and efficiencies, and cost containment; a pharmaceuticals procurement distribution and access; also changes to eliminate grandfathering that happened in 2004. May I remind all the...

The programs that we have for the NWT residents, whether it be NIHB, the federal government’s NIHB, Metis Health Benefits and Supp Health, that makes it so there is no need for catastrophic drug coverage. So what the Member is talking about is other things like people in low income, people can’t afford. So if you are talking about how to compare between the three programs and finding equity, that is part of the recommendation of the Joint Working Group and we need to look at those and look at the proposal. Thank you.