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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - The territorial government is putting changes to its health benefit programs on hold after weeks of pressure from seniors' groups in the territory.

The changes, which would have seen some seniors and people with disabilities lose or face a reduction to their extended health care benefits while more lower income families would receive coverage, was scheduled to come into effect April 1.

Health Minister Sandy Lee announced Monday that implementation of the Supplementary Health Benefits and Catastrophic Drug programs won't take place until Sept. 1.

Lee said she wants to revisit the programs after receiving a torrent of e-mails about the changes, not all of them positive.

"I'm responding to the really big feedback I've been receiving since the Dec. 18 announcement," said Lee. "There are a couple gaps."

She said the revamped health benefit plan for Sept. 1 will address complaints that the income threshold bar for supplement health benefits was set too high and that there wasn't much difference in the threshold between single residents and families.

The catastrophic drug program will also be revamped to include not just drug coverage but expensive medical equipment used to administer the drugs as well, said Lee.

She said that while high income seniors will still be expected to pay for such things as medical prescriptions and eyeglasses come Sept. 1, the new plan will offer extended health coverage to the 10 per cent of low income, non-aboriginal families who are currently without coverage.

"People honestly agree with this policy objective," said Lee, adding most seniors in the territory, including those residing in senior's homes, will still get extended medical coverage.

The plan to roll out the new Supplementary Health Benefits program on April 1 was unveiled to the public in late 2008 and immediately roused controversy.

The intention of the program is to help improve access to extended health care benefits for low income, non-aboriginal residents and families, but many residents argued the new program would hurt more people than it would help, especially seniors and those dealing with chronic diseases and disabilities.

The concern is mainly over income thresholds to qualify for benefits, which many said were set too low.

David Wind, spokesperson for the Yellowknife Seniors' Society, said the September delay is just a tactic to avoid strong opposition from MLAs in the legislative assembly, which resumes today.

He said the government should look more closely at its $1.3 billion budget to find money to include residents currently not covered.

"If the government feels there are some people who currently lack coverage and are in need of it, they should look to see if they can't find a couple million dollars to provide those benefits instead of trying to provide them on the backs of the chronically ill, those in palliative care or amongst our seniors," said Wind.

Currently, providing extended health care coverage costs the government about $7 million a year.

Great Slave MLA Glen Abernethy said it will be impossible for Lee and her department to reassess and make changes to the new program before Sept. 1, considering that it took the government four years to draft the policy changes.

"I think the Sept. 1 date is a bit short-sided," said Abernethy.

"It suggests to me that it's just a delay tactic. It's just going to be implemented and rammed through without any meaningful debate in the house on it. Something of this magnitude needs to be debated and discussed. This isn't right."

Kam Lake Dave Ramsay said the government is simply trying to turn down the heat.

"I'm sceptical of the whole thing. It's nice they're putting it off and my fear is they're going to do it anyways," said Ramsay.

"The minister defended it the best she could but you can't defend poor and shoddy work."

Abernethy was planning to introduce a non-confidence to sack Lee, but due to the delay in the policy change he said MLAs need to go back to the drawing board and aim to hold Lee accountable for the policy review.

He said a implementation date of April 1, 2010 would be more suitable and will allow for proper consultation.

"That will give them time to do some due diligence, do some investigation and do real, meaningful consultation before they design a program," he said. "Sept. 1? That deadline means they're just going to ignore us."

- with files from Mike W. Bryant