Mr. Speaker, the effect and the picture, the impact that we are drawing here is that for 80 percent of the non-aboriginal NWT population, they will have as good or better Supplementary Health Benefits Program than what
they would have if they work for the Government of the Northwest Territories. That is a good program. That is a generous program. That is a fair program. For the rest of that population, 20 percent, they will still be covered. We are still generous. We are asking that they will start paying a premium starting at 20 percent, but no one will pay more than 45 percent. Anybody in that income bracket, I would think, would look to get an insurance program which will then cover them 80 percent.
Mr. Speaker, catastrophic drugs, what Members are talking about, when we are talking about catastrophic drugs nationally, we are talking about drug costs that the government is asked to pay that costs hundreds of thousands of dollars. That is a program that we will be introducing. We are working on it. But for the benefit of this program, yes, we are asking our people to start having to pay for some of their supplementary health costs out of their own pocket. In the rest of the country, you would pay 100 percent on this if you had employment health insurance. If you don’t have employment health insurance, if you wanted to get assistance from government, your income threshold would have to be much lower than what we offer.
Mr. Speaker, the Department of Health and Social Services has reviewed this for three years. We have worked hard to come up with a comprehensive, fair and equitable plan. Mr. Speaker, we stand by this. Thank you.