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INUVIK - 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 re-vamped health benefit plan for Sept. 1 will address complaints that the income threshold bar for supplement health benefits was set too low and that there wasn't much difference in the threshold between single residents and families.

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

She said 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 aroused 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.

- with files from Mike W. Bryant