Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister of Health and Social Services. I want to ask her questions on the Extended Health Benefits Program. I want to ask the Minister what the total costs are of the existing Extended Health Benefits Program.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We spend about $8 million for non-aboriginal residents of the Northwest Territories. We spend a couple of million dollars for Metis health. The aboriginal residents of the Territories receive their extended health benefits through NIHB, which is a federal program.
I want to ask the Minister a technical question. How much does it cost the government to top up payments for people who already have 80 percent coverage of their drugs and earn large incomes?
I don’t believe we have our stats broken down into that detail, but it is true under our current system that those with employer insurance, whether they work for the government or whatever third-party insurance they have, if they are over 60 they get a top-up. Nobody else would get the top-up. Same for those with chronic conditions. If they have private insurance they will get a top-up. But because our system basically covers 100 percent of it all, they come straight to us.
Will the Minister implement a program which supports low-income earners without coverage so that these people and their families can get assistance with the cost of their drugs, visits to the dentist and costs of eyeglasses?
The consultation that we are doing right now on the basis of the public discussion paper we have out there is geared toward having a discussion about that, explaining what our extended health benefits are doing right now. Right now anybody who is over 60 or with a specified condition that is on the list gets 100 percent coverage no questions asked, as long as they have NWT health care. What the program does not provide is for those who are not 60 or who are not eligible for the specified medical condition and they do not have insurance coverage. Even if they don’t have any insurance coverage, they can’t access any top-up or anything like that.
What the public discussion paper states is why don’t we roll this all into one program where the benefits will stay the same. We do want to still offer extended health benefits, but we need to look at who should access this fund. We’re not talking about eliminating anybody from the program, but those with the ability to pay, perhaps could help us with that. That’s part of the discussion. Everybody will get a fair chance to have access to benefits, but their ability to pay should be a factor, as well as other factors. The information we give out here says that in fact the ability to pay, an income level does not discriminate by age. There are high-income earners and low-income earners of all ages. We want to have that thorough discussion with the public.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. Final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Interesting response in terms of the health benefits. In my Member’s statement I talked about the various programs the federal government has for aboriginal people, the GNWT has for the Metis people, and now we’re talking about the non-aboriginal health benefits here. I would like to ask the Minister, if we don’t do anything, would these benefits that are extended exceed the other benefits that people have such as the ones that we’re talking about, the ones who do have the ability to pay. That’s what I’m looking at in this program here. Will that exceed what the aboriginal and Metis people are going to be getting if we do allow this program to be wide open?
I think it’s important for people to know that the NIHB Program is completely separate from extended health benefits. That is a federal program and what happens there would not have a bearing on what happens with extended health benefits. This is our GNWT program. This is extra health benefits that we provide to our residents above and beyond what’s normally considered under the Canada Health Act. We have some of the most generous programs. We cover prescriptions, vision care and dental care for our seniors. We cover 100 percent of specified conditions.
We are not talking about reducing benefits, but what we are saying is we need to recognize that income level in quite similar in all age groups. There are people who are young and who are making low income and there are people who are older with high income, and we are saying let us look at income as one of the threshold questions and see how we can make the system more fair and equitable. We are wanting to listen to the people about what they have to say about this, but it is something that we need to have discussion on. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.
