Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yesterday I expressed my concerns about the implementation of the Supplementary Health Benefit Policy and suggested that it will create a new class of working poor: the medically bankrupted. It’s eminently clear that Cabinet must be provided with a few real life examples of the effect this policy will have on our residents in order for them to understand the magnitude of the problems that this policy will cause.
So the first example: An MLA who, of course, has third-party insurance, similar to all GNWT employees, and who needs a drug to treat a specific condition. The third-party insurance will cover 80 percent of the cost of that drug but the remaining 20 percent is totally the responsibility of the individual. In my case, that’s about $8 a month. Certainly an amount I can bear, and I do do that. Contrast that to the situation described by Mr. Abernethy yesterday: a third-generation Northerner who will be required to bear the cost of some $2,000 per month. Who among us in this room could afford to spend $2,000 a month on medical necessities? Not me.
A second example: A family of four living in my riding, mother, father, two children, one of whom is severely disabled. The father has third-party insurance through his employer, which again will cover about 80 percent of the young son’s medical needs; special equipment, mobility aides, special food, drugs, the list is long. The cost of those medical needs can be as high as, for this one child alone, $25,000 a year. Is it realistic to expect this single-income family to pay the $400 or more just for their one child’s needs? I don’t think so.
These are extreme cases, Mr. Speaker, and Members may dismiss them as invalid or unrealistic. I wish that were true, but it is not. These examples are real and they point to the effect this new Supplementary Health Benefit Policy implementation will have on our residents. The
problem presented to us is that government must find a way to provide supplementary health benefits to those not currently covered and to find a way to cover that cost. So let’s find a solution to that problem, not create another problem with our solution. There are other ways to generate the required revenue without the drastic results that this proposed method will produce.
The Minister tells us she and Cabinet have looked at all the possibilities and rejected them all except the proposed system.
Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
---Unanimous consent granted