Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The flexibility that the Member is suggesting would be a policy change and I think what we need is we want to be clear about our policies. If we want to change the policy, we should change them. Adding a flexibility makes it too difficult for staff in the system to administer.

What the Member is speaking to is a compassionate medical escort and a compassionate escort is not provided for under our policy. We are reviewing our Medical Travel Policy right now including an escort issue, because we are inundated every day with families who would like us to assist more. We as a Legislature have to make decisions on that and how much money we are willing to invest on that, because the needs and demands would increase.

Every family, every situation, I could give you dozens of examples over the last year where, whether it’s a little child, a young man, different levels of disability, an elder. We have a situation where an entire extended family wanted to be able to go and visit their family in need. The demands are endless and we are talking about if we implement those, we’re talking about doubling or tripling the expenditure. If that’s what the Legislature wants to do and that’s how we want to spend our health budget, that is a decision for us to make, but I would suggest that it can’t be done as a case-by-case flexibility situation because it could not be administered.

I just want to let the Member know that the department is reviewing the Medical Travel Policy. We are reviewing the Escort Policy. I will come back to standing committee on what our options are, what may need to be changed, and what the cost implications are so we have a very clear picture about choices that we face.