Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A few weeks ago the Department of Health and Social Services launched a survey talking about some proposed changes to the extended health benefits. I gave it a quick glance, and I was pretty happy.
Mr. Speaker, multiple times in this House I spoke about the essential gap of the working poor in this territory who do not have any extended health benefits. It appeared the department had a plan to means test extended health benefits and provide them to those people. My only feedback at that time was that the income threshold was a little low, and we should perhaps increase it to provide this benefit to more people.
But it came to my attention, and was raised by a number of people, that we are actually doing something else instead of just providing extended health benefits. We're removing the specified disease conditions that currently give people benefits. At first, I thought this couldn't be true. I went back to the survey. I read it a number of times, and nowhere did it clearly state that this is what we were doing.
Mr. Speaker, if we're going to consult on the question of whether to means test extended health benefits, that's fine. But if we're going to consult on the question of whether to provide extended health benefits at the expense of those who presently have specified diseases, that is a completely different question.
Mr. Speaker, after I raised this in the media, the department reissued the survey and somewhat attempted to clarify what they were doing. But I still don't believe it is sufficient. And I am getting many questions that I simply cannot ask, and the survey and engagement do not ask specific questions about how certain drugs work? How, if you have cancer but you get this specific prescription drug, is that covered; is that insurable? Very nuanced questions about how copayment will work. Questions about what if I have a specified disease and I can't find private health insurance?
Mr. Speaker, I've sent these people to the department, and I'm assured that the department is working with these people, but I think some much more targeted engagement needs to occur for all the people who presently have specified diseases and we're providing benefits to. That seems to be the main people we need to talk to.
And then from my end, Mr. Speaker, even more questions need to be answered. How many people are we presently providing benefits to? This is not presented. Is this actually going to cost us money or save us money? Mr. Speaker, I suspect that this is a cost saving measure in that providing benefits to people with specified diseases is quite expensive and generally just because you're poor, it doesn't mean you have a specified disease.
I will have questions for the Minister of Health about a number of these things and hopefully get some answers to people out there about what it is we're actually doing. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Members' statements. Member for Nahendeh.
