Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In follow-up to my Member’s statement today on the renewal of NWT health care cards, I’d like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services if he could articulate for us some of the challenges that they have faced in the process and how those challenges have been addressed. Thank you.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The Minister of Health, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The department is working with all of the health authorities and also the health centres right across the territory to try to make this renewal of health cards as smooth as possible.
As of the middle of this month, we were to process 11,600 health care cards starting in January 2013. We have about an 86 percent compliance. We have about 86 percent of those processed, so there are a lot of health cards being done. Overall, we need to process about 38,000 health care cards in 2013.
For the most part we think it’s going fairly smoothly. We do have some glitches in the system, but for the most part it’s going well. We are trying to ensure that people are not left without coverage. I think that’s the main point. Thank you.
When there are glitches and people are not getting health care cards in a timely manner, what we have been doing… Constituents have been providing us with a list of names and scenarios and we’ve been taking that to the Minister’s office. Some, as Mr. Bouchard had indicated, have not had a lot of success in contacting the insurance office in Inuvik. Mailboxes are full when you call to leave a voice mail and so on. I’m sure this is a big undertaking for them, too, but what would we tell people, what would we tell our constituents if they are not receiving their health care card in a timely manner, if they are frustrated with the process? What would the Minister like us to do? Would contacting MLAs, going through his office, is this a satisfactory method of resolving this, in his opinion? Thank you.
Clients who have applied for renewal will continue to get coverage. The fact that they may not have the physical health card in their hand at the time may not be that important. I recognize that individuals want to have that card in case of travel, but for the sake of seeing a physician or getting pharmaceuticals, it shouldn’t be an issue.
Individuals, if they apply and their health card is not there on time, has not arrived by the time their old health care card has expired, we are still going to be able to provide coverage for those individuals.
That is very good to hear, and I’m sure the public will be glad to hear that, too, because it is a little different than when I questioned the Minister during the last sitting of the Legislature. That is a little bit different.
Has the department, in response to the concerns about a lack of health care card, revised the policy so that people who haven’t got a physical health care card in their hand are still receiving coverage? Has this been an amendment to the policy in light of these problems?
The anticipation is that things would go smooth and that an individual that gets a postcard 45 days before their birthday will then have, essentially, some time – I believe it’s four months even after their birthday – to apply. But their coverage is intended to continue as long as they have actually applied, whether they have the card or not.
That is just something that we’re doing now, because, of course, ideally, people would apply for their cards, go through the regular system, the card would come on time and they would be covered. That was the planning that took place. That was the intention. We were planning along the lines of success.
However, since there are some failures in the system, we’re saying that if you’ve applied and the individuals know where you’re trying to get a service from the doctors, from the drug stores, then we will continue to cover. People that haven’t applied or people that don’t have an old card but are indicating that they are a resident that would be eligible will have to pay up front and then bill for reimbursement if they are eligible for a health care card.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m not sure I understood everything that the Minister just said, but it seems like in there somewhere he said that if you have applied for your card and you were a holder of a card previously that you will get coverage. I’d ask the Minister if he would commit to communicating that out to the folks at the front line so that there’s no confusion when a person who is a bona fide NWT resident shows up and their card has not come in the mail yet. If that could be communicated somehow, because there does seem to be some misunderstanding about that even on the front-line worker level.
I will commit to having the department advise the health centres and the drugstores that individual clients who prove that they have applied could do one of two things. The drugstore or the clinic can do an immediate check to see how far along in the process their card approval is, or also just to prove that they have applied and they will be covered.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
