Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I would like to remind NWT residents of something they probably knew, but maybe from time to time need to be reminded of, and that has to do with coverage for medical travel.
Mr. Speaker, we have very good medical travel coverage for residents of the Northwest Territories. However, what people need to be reminded of is the only medical travel the GNWT pays for through your health insurance is travel that originates in the Northwest Territories. So, Mr. Speaker, when NWT residents travel, and I believe they travel very extensively and I believe statistics would prove that NWT residents probably travel in other parts of Canada and to foreign countries more than average on a per capita basis, but when we travel in Canada, if we got into a medical emergency situation, I believe that if we produced our NWT health care card we would receive medical attention at a Canadian institution that provides health service.
However, if you need to be transported to that medical attention in an ambulance, on an airplane from a site that was remote to medical help, that particular travel cost would not be covered by the GNWT because it did not originate in the GNWT. Especially to parents who have students who are attending school outside of the Northwest Territories, if you are a student, if your child is involved in an accident, for example in Edmonton or anyplace they may be attending post-secondary school, and needs to be transported to a medical facility by ambulance, again those kinds of expenses are not covered.
It is amazing, actually, how cheap medical insurance is if you need to purchase it. I know during the height of the SARS crisis, one of my sons went to Japan. I went to an airport kiosk and bought him medical insurance to bring him home if he got ill. It was actually quite inexpensive, but we need to remember to do that.
Mr. Speaker, thinking back to the time when I was Minister, too, someone was skiing in Quebec and broke their back. They received their medical attention, but they needed to get home, back to where their family was. Those are the kinds of things that can happen. A person driving from Inuvik to Edmonton had a heart attack on the Yukon side of the border. He needed to get to Edmonton for medical attention and again, because that incident did not occur in the Northwest Territories, that medical travel was not covered.
So today I just wanted to remind people of the NWT to buy medical insurance for travel. It’s inexpensive and you never know when you’ll need it. Thank you.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
