Right now my focus is on working on the Supplementary Health Benefits Program so that there is fairness and equity in that. I need people out there to know that the government’s plan and intention is to provide coverage to those who need it, that we will continue to provide the Extended Health Care Benefits Program and we will continue to work and have programs that are comparable, if not better, than what’s provided in the rest of Canada. But in the rest of Canada there are no extended health benefits that either don’t charge premiums or has some kind of user pay and there is a very strict income testing. Not only do they test income, they look at all of your assets before you could ask the government to pay for your drug coverage and eye glasses and dental.
So, Mr. Speaker, for people out there, I don’t want the seniors or anybody to think that they’re going to have their benefits taken away. What we are saying is that anybody who can’t afford it, the government should still be there to look after them, but we do want to build in an incentive for people to look at insurance and private insurance first. We don’t want to be in a situation where we have a built-in incentive for people to get out of insurance coverage when they already had it because our plan is more lucrative, and also that we need to build in some personal responsibility to our extended health care benefits, because it is very important, it is very valuable, it is very expensive, and it has to be a partnership between our residents and our government. Thank you.