Sandy Lee

Because, Mr. Speaker, I think that the one thing that we need to remember is that all governments try to have a program that supports the residents on low income, or seniors, or a person with disabilities, those people who need the government for non-insured health benefits. So in that way, this program that we have designed is very generous and much more comprehensive than any that is available in the rest of the country.

The fact of the matter is, Mr. Speaker, we have to put this in the context of other obligations that the Department of Health and Social Services and the government has to...

As I indicated earlier, suggestions such as how do we minimize the opportunity for our people to dump their insurance, I think we should put our heads together to see how we could do that and we should look into that, Mr. Speaker. We are going to work through this because we know that there’s a time limit to this and I’m willing to work with the Members about how to improve this. There is a challenge to expanding the program to those who need it, without making some changes within. Thank you.

As I indicated in the House, every health authority, every health profession, professionals have a very strict protocol on patient records and medical information and they are to follow those protocols. When there are situations like this as sometimes does happen, then you have to investigate and work with the Privacy Commissioner to make sure those breaches don’t happen again and we are doing that with the latest information. Thank you.

I’m sure if I read all of those 3,000, which I will, I probably know almost all of them. This is not impersonal to me. This is not just an issue that we’re talking about. This is very near and dear to me, as well. I talked to the people. I know who was at those meetings. I know people who are writing me. I’ve known them for all of my life here. I understand that this is a very, very pressing issue and dear issue, Mr. Speaker.

So we will continue to work on this package. We have done everything we can to… We have done a lot of work. The Department of Health and Social Services spent a majority...

Mr. Speaker, the fact of the matter is, the Minister and this Cabinet and this Legislature has to consider supplementary health benefits in the context. As the Member for Sahtu has mentioned, and others, the government is responsible for insured benefits as well as non-insured. Supplementary health is non-insured. The government has a priority to use its money on insured services. For non-insured services, it is to come up with a program that is as fair and as equitable as possible. We have to realize that there is some personal investment that has to be made into this program. We are asking...

We are suggesting a cap that we are discussing with the committee. Thank you.

Because, Mr. Speaker, we are far from aiming at anything low. I am going to table this Slave River Journal article written by a small newspaper agency in Fort Smith. They took their time to do a cross-country survey on what is available. Even the Yukon has a program for seniors that are over 65. Every program is income tested. Every program has deductibles. Why do we have to compare with the rest of Canada?

The fact of the matter is, Mr. Speaker, health care is important. We need to be able to fund it. We need to focus our energy on core health. When we are talking about delivering programs in...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In all of the, I believe, written material that’s been on the website, the presentations made in public meetings about supplementary health benefits, we have stated that NWT residents receive supplementary health benefits in various ways by all kinds of different third-party insurance. NIHB is a third-party insurance. MHB is a third-party insurance. Employer health insurance is a third-party insurance. People who have private insurance, that is a third-party insurance. And supplementary health is trying to address these people who don’t fall into any of that, who don’t...

The answer to that has to do with what I keep saying about insured services versus non-insured services. Insured services are what people know as our health care. That’s our doctor service, hospital service, nursing service, surgeries, hip replacements, having a baby. Those are what we know to be a health care that everybody is entitled to and everybody will get. Nothing changes from that.

What we are talking about is uninsured services. Things like the cost of drugs, glasses, dental, and equipment. Right now the aboriginal people get those covered through NIHB and Metis health benefits. For...

Thank you. I could follow up on that, Mr. Speaker, and give him the latest information coming out of that website. I think what’s important to note is reducing wait times for some of these procedures doesn’t necessarily have to do with the vacancy, because for those procedures, we have our staff in there. If there is nobody permanent there, we have locums in place. What we are trying to do is we need to have a team of specialists, whether surgeons, internal medicine specialists, nurses, supporting staff, they need the space to make sure that they do the job they need to do as quickly as...