Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services.
Mr. Speaker, I'm wondering if the Minister can let us know how the GNWT sets the per diems, hotel subsidy, and copay amounts for medical travel? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Minister responsible for Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the question.
I want to start with that access to healthcare while it's determined by whether someone is Indigenous, Metis, on a private healthcare plan, or a public healthcare plan, access is the same. That is guaranteed under the Canada Health Act. How you get to that medical treatment I think is what the Member wants to hear about.
So the medical travel program is in place not to reimburse residents for everything that they spend but rather to reduce the financial barrier of travelling for a service that's not provided here. So the benefit program is provided by GNWT on par with NIHB and the Metis Health Benefit Plan. The situation is that if a person has an income of under $80,000 a year, they're eligible to stay at a boarding home which provides both accommodation and food. If they have a higher income or they choose not to stay at the boarding room, then the per diem is $68 per day, and that's been the case since 2003. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the costs have gone up substantially, especially over the last couple of years here, and I'm wondering if Health and Social Services intends to increase the per diems and hotel subsidy that they offer to make it more in line with the costs that residents are actually incurring when they travel south? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I appreciate the question. The medical travel program has a number of reviews ongoing in this fiscal year, and that includes the per diem rate, which we've been referencing here, and mileage rates, as well as the exceptions policy, the escort criteria, a number of formal definitions such as "nearest centre" and the air ambulance transportation policy. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in my Member's statement I spoke about the GNWT benefit program for medical travel really being the gold standard in the Northwest Territories and one that I think all residents would like the opportunity to have access to. So I'm wondering if the Minister can speak to what the cost would be to provide medical travel benefits to all residents equal to that received of GNWT employees? Thank you.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the NWT medical travel program is for people who don't have private means to travel through their employer benefits, for example, whether those are public employers like the GNWT, or they are private employers, the medical travel program fills that gap.
In terms of who gets these benefits in the GNWT, the medical travel benefits are part of the compensation package for staff, and so they have them on that basis through their collective agreement.
In the last fiscal year, the medical travel program spent $43 million for approximately 15,000 cases. So with 45,000 people in the territory, let's triple that and say it's $150 million to provide even the level of benefits we have now to everyone. So there is no cost estimate. I can just say that it is going to be tens of millions of dollars over what we spend today. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, would the Minister be willing to look at a policy change as well that would allow travel to Calgary for medical travel patients? Right now what patients are saying, or what constituents are saying, is that there's additional wait times in order for waiting for appointments available in Edmonton and that medical travel won't cover the travel to get to Calgary for appointments of the same nature but that are available much sooner. And so I'm wondering if this change can be made at a policy level. This would save on administrative burdens associated with appeals and would also provide timelier healthcare service to NWT residents. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you for that question. The way that the referrals work now is that we have an agreement with Alberta Health Services to provide, as a first response, care and services in Edmonton and the associated support services, such as the Larga Boarding Home and medical travel contracts and so on, all support that Edmonton location. I don't have any information about the relative waiting lists of Edmonton versus Calgary, which would be an important dimension to consider here. And also another thing to consider would be whether Alberta Health Services would provide the same care in Calgary as they do in Edmonton. So those are some interesting things to take up.
What I need to say about that as well is that if someone is referred to specialized care in Calgary, the medical travel will pay for them to have that specialized care in Calgary versus Edmonton. If people are accessing care themselves without being referred by the NWT healthcare system, then the cost of medical travel is on them as is the cost if they are using a private clinic. Thank you.
