Seniors GNWT Supplementary Health Benefits Program

Important: You will be receiving an Extended Health Benefits for Seniors Renewal form in the mail. This form must be filled out & returned to continue receiving benefits. Extra copies are available at the Baker Centre.

As of Saturday, March 26, 2011  Minister Michael Miltenberger has taken over
the portfolios of:

Minister of Health and Social Services
Minister Responsible for Status of Women
Minister Responsible for Persons with Disabilities
Minister Responsible for Homelessness
Minister Responsible for Seniors

March 12, 2011...GNWT Healthcare Benefits/Seniors...link

History

Members and Friends,

October 29, 2010  Supplementary Health Policy Rescinded

The Minister of Health and Social Services announced this morning that the Supplementary Health Policy previously approved by Cabinet has been rescinded.  This means that the proposal for income tested co-payments for extended health benefits will not be implemented.  This also means that the intention to apply the changes to only the group classified as “Other” under the NWT health system will not proceed.  Instead the Department of Health and Social Services will consider how to extend the benefits to those who are currently not covered and what other changes might be appropriate.

* * *

On Sept 30, 2010,  I attended the Range Lake Constituency meeting hosted by Health Minister Sandy Lee.  I counted approximately 20 people in attendance who were either members of the Yellowknife Seniors’ Society or supporters of the Society’s stand against the introduction of co-payments for supplementary health benefits.  After a few introductory remarks by Minister Lee about the upcoming session of the Legislative Assembly, the meeting concerned itself almost exclusively with the supplementary health issue.  Many people spoke to various aspects but two main themes dominated.

1.     The proposed system of income tested co-payments is a step which will result in privatizing a portion of supplementary health which is currently funded from tax revenues and transfers.

2.     Introducing the requirement only for those classified as “Other” is unfair and constitutes an ethnic based approach to the delivery of supplementary healthcare to Northerners.  

We were very interested to learn what would be recommended by the Supplementary Health Benefits Working Group.  Very few specifics were announced last night because, according to Minister Lee, the report was still being finalized.  The following points were noted.

1.     Implementation of the recommendations from the Working Group will take place in stages

a.     Things that can be done immediately will be implemented in November

b.     Medium term recommendations will be implemented by March 2011.

c.       Longer term, no specific date given.

d.     The report will be made public before the Legislative Assembly next meets, October 14^th.  

September 23  :

On September 23 the Yellowknife Seniors’ Society e-mailed Yellowknife MLA’s to ask them to help us communicate their positions on the Government’s proposed Extended Health Benefits Changes to you.   

In this email, we have provided an introductory statement and three questions which we asked each MLA to answer.  Hopefully this will help you to compare the position of your MLA with those of other Yellowknife MLA’s.  

Merlyn Williams, President

Yellowknife Seniors’ Society

June 14: 

The Society expects that the Working Group of MLA’s will be meeting over the next ten days or so to examine the proposed changes to Extended Health Benefits.  So far they have determined that there will not be opportunities for members of the public to present their views directly.  MLA’s however will be afforded an opportunity to do so.  Whether Yellowknife MLA’s will be prepared to provide the committee with their views is uncertain.  

The Working Group is slated to make its report to Cabinet at the end of June.  The Yellowknife Seniors’ Society urges each and every one of you to contact your MLA and tell them how you feel about the changes to the Extended Health Benefits.  Urge him or her to convey your views to the Working Group.  It will be our last good chance to save the Extended Health Benefits.  To assist you, the three main elements of the Society’s position are summarized below:  

1.     Whatever happens to supplementary health, the Non-Aboriginal and Métis programs funded by the GNWT should treat all residents the same.   If one group does not have to make a co-payment, neither should another group.  To do otherwise would be discriminatory.

   * * *

A short update on the above topic.  As many of you know Minister Lee has set up a working group to look at some narrow issues with regard to Supplementary Heath Benefits namely:

    -Personal third party coverage responsibility.

    -Approaches to limit employer and/or individuals from dropping third party insurance, and

    -The issue of accumulated high costs and a capped threshold.

The members on the working group are:

Ms. Wendy Bisaro, Ms. Jane Groenwegen, and Mr. Norman Yakeleya. 

Cabinet members on the working group are:

Misister Lee,  Minister Miltenberger, and Minister Michael McLeod.

The woking group will report to the Cabinet and the Priorities and Planning committee in June to ensure an implementaion date on or before November 1, 20010.

On May 25, the YK Seniors Society sent  a letter to Minister Lee, her Health Benefits Working group, all other Cabinet Ministers and regular MLA's restating our position and offering to meet with the Working Group. 

I have also sent a letter to the Editor of the Yellowknifer in response to the Editiorial that appeared in the Friday May 21 edition and that  appeared in the Friday May 28  edition of the Yellowknifer.

Dear Mr. Wind:

I’m responding to your letter of May 12^th on behalf of Minister Sandy Lee.   

The model that you have described in your letter is very similar to the way third party insurance works for those Canadians who are eligible.  They access the program and pay a co-payment only when it is needed – this is a fair and equitable model that works for most Canadians.  

I would also like to confirm to you that Minister Lee will be moving forward with a working group made up of Members of the Legislative Assembly that will take into consideration many of the concerns that you and other seniors have raised in developing the final program and implementation surrounding Supplementary Health Benefits.  

The Minister will be sharing the results of the working group as they move forward with implementation in the late fall.

Sincerely, Dana Heide

*  *  *

Tuesday, May 11, the Legislative Assembly started its May session.  We gathered at the Legislative Assembly Building on Tues May 11 over noon hour, to make our feelings known to all members of the Assembly, especially, the Premier, the Minister of Health and the Minister of Finance..  The May session will be our last major opportunity to convince the government to withdraw its mean spirited tax directed at the  non-aboriginal Sick and Elderly so thank-you to those who attended. 

Mr Glen Abernathy, MLA for Yellowknife – Great Slave, has agreed to present the Society’s petition (over 1900 signatures) on Thursday, May 13.  We can show our support for the petition and MLA’s who support our position by having as many people as possible in attendance in the Leg Gallery.  The sessions start at 1:30.  Please plan to spend an hour or so to help the cause.   

April 13, 2010 Update

Yellowknife Seniors’ Society – Position on Extended Health Benefits

The Department of Health and Social Services has commenced a round of public consultations regarding their latest proposal to combine the three Extended Health Benefits Programs for non-aboriginal Northerners into a single Supplementary Health Benefits Program. The categories and limits of benefits in the new program are identical to those of the current Extended Health Benefits Program for Seniors with access extended to all non-aboriginal Northerners regardless of age or medical condition. The big drawback is that residents will be required to pay a portion of the costs of the supplementary health services they receive. This is called a co-payment. The actual amount of the co-payment is determined from the number of dependent children in your household and the net combined family income taken from line 236 of your Income Tax Returns.

The Yellowknife Seniors’ Society is not opposed to the expansion of access to supplementary health benefits. That provision would bring access into line with what is available under the Extended Health Benefits Program for indigenous Metis. However, co-payments will seriously diminish the value of the benefits already being received by those of us who are over 60 and those of us who are suffering from chronic diseases. They have the potential for very serious financial impacts on those most vulnerable in our society.

The Society understands that expanded access may cost the government a little more although specific figures have not been made available. Reducing the value of benefits through co-payments to offset those unspecified costs, amounts to the imposition of a tax on the non-aboriginal Sick and Elderly. It is not, as has been advanced in some circles, a requirement to have residents with high incomes pay for a portion of the cost of supplementary health benefits. You must first be sick and/or elderly to receive the benefits in the first place; so it is the Sick and the Elderly who are being taxed through the co-payments.

The Society notes that healthcare in the NWT for non-aboriginals and indigenous Metis has always been funded primarily through the income tax: some federally by way of transfers and some territorially. This spreads the burden equitably among all the members of society, those who are healthy and those who are not. The Society feels that the income tax should continue to be used to fund the expanded supplementary health benefits for non-aboriginal Northerners. Any incremental cost increases for expanding access are expected to be small and easily funded through re-allocation of financial resources within government.

This would have the effect of fairly apportioning the costs of supplemental health benefits, simplifying the administrative complexity of the program and reducing the implementation administration costs, bringing benefits for non-aboriginal Northerners into line with the benefits available to indigenous Metis (both programs are funded by the GNWT), avoiding the ethnic wedge that is being created by the new proposal, and best of all, avoiding an income tested tax on the Sick and the Elderly.

    Seniors protest march @ GNWT Leg Feb. 2009

Health Benefits Consultation meetings Updates:

 Last Friday, 9 Oct, 2009, I attended the first stakeholder meeting organized by the Department of Health and Social Services to discuss the situation regarding Extended Health Benefits.  Senior representatives from the Department were in attendance as well as representatives from the Yellowknife Association for Community Living, The Yellowknife Women’s Centre, YWCA, Council of Persons with Disabilities, two representatives of the NWT Seniors Society in Hay River and the Executive Director of the NWT Seniors Society.  Representation from other groups such as the NWT Federation of Labour, NWT Dentist, and Medical Practitioners, and Druggists were identified as also having a stake in the discussions.  The Department agreed to make further efforts to get more stakeholders involved.  

There was acknowledgement from the Department that the changes proposed last year were poorly thought out with unproven assumptions, poorly communicated and with consultations which were ineffective.  The Department went on to acknowledge that the vociferous public reaction against the proposed changes was entirely unexpected.  

After considering the work required to conduct the consultations, analyze the relevant statistics, design a new Supplementary Health Benefits Program, Conduct further consultations and then introduce the new program would likely not be accomplished in time for an introduction by April 1, 2010.  Thus, Department officials expect that a further delay will be necessary (probably another year before any changes become effective).  The delay will of some relief to members of the Society but I must remind you that changes to the Extended Health Benefits Program have not been shelved; they are likely to be delayed one additional year.  

Department officials indicated they would like to hold the second meeting a week to ten days from last Friday’s.  I will keep you posted.