{"id":90577,"date":"2025-03-18T08:24:31","date_gmt":"2025-03-18T12:24:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/?p=90577"},"modified":"2025-03-18T08:24:31","modified_gmt":"2025-03-18T12:24:31","slug":"turning-medical-travel-costs-program-over-to-ottawa-an-option-health-minister","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/18\/turning-medical-travel-costs-program-over-to-ottawa-an-option-health-minister\/","title":{"rendered":"Turning medical travel costs program over to Ottawa an \u2018option\u2019: Health minister"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>With federal funding for a program covering Nunavut Inuit\u2019s medical travel costs set to end at the end of this month, Health Minister John Main says turning administration of it back to Ottawa remains an \u201coption.\u201d \u201cTime\u2019s running out,\u201d Main said March 11 of the Non-Insured Health Benefits program during an interview. \u201cWe really want to have an agreement in place [with Indigenous Services Canada] so we can plan properly, so we don\u2019t have this huge gap or a huge hole in our budget.\u201d The NIHB is funded by Indigenous Services Canada and administered by the Government of Nunavut. For Inuit in Nunavut, the program covers costs for medical travel and services including vision and dental care. Main also suggested the possibility of turning administration of the program over to&#8230; <\/p>\n<div class=\"pmpro\">\n<div class=\"pmpro_card pmpro_content_message\">\n<div class=\"pmpro_card_content\">This content is for Yearly Subscription, Yearly Subscription &#8211; Corporate, Print Subscription Only, and Canada Print and Online members only.<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?action=register\">Register<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"pmpro_card_actions pmpro_font-medium\">Already a member? <a href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Ftheturtleislandnews.com%2Findex.php%2F2025%2F03%2F18%2Fturning-medical-travel-costs-program-over-to-ottawa-an-option-health-minister%2F\">Log in here<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With federal funding for a program covering Nunavut Inuit\u2019s medical travel costs set to end at the end of this month, Health Minister John Main says turning administration of it back to Ottawa remains an \u201coption.\u201d \u201cTime\u2019s running out,\u201d Main said March 11 of the Non-Insured Health Benefits program during an interview. \u201cWe really want to have an agreement in place [with Indigenous Services Canada] so we can plan properly, so we don\u2019t have this huge gap or a huge hole in our budget.\u201d The NIHB is funded by Indigenous Services Canada and administered by the Government of Nunavut. For Inuit in Nunavut, the program covers costs for medical travel and services including vision and dental care. Main also suggested the possibility of turning administration of the program over to... <\/p>\n<div class=\"pmpro\"><div class=\"pmpro_card pmpro_content_message\"><div class=\"pmpro_card_content\">This content is for Yearly Subscription, Yearly Subscription - Corporate, Print Subscription Only, and Canada Print and Online members only.<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?action=register\">Register<\/a><\/div><div class=\"pmpro_card_actions pmpro_font-medium\">Already a member? <a href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Ftheturtleislandnews.com%2Findex.php%2F2025%2F03%2F18%2Fturning-medical-travel-costs-program-over-to-ottawa-an-option-health-minister%2F\">Log in here<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"author":101363,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-90577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news","category-ticker","pmpro-level-required","pmpro-level-3","pmpro-level-2","pmpro-level-5","pmpro-level-4","pmpro-level-6","pmpro-level-7","pmpro-no-access"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Turning medical travel costs program over to Ottawa an \u2018option\u2019: Health minister - The Turtle Island News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/18\/turning-medical-travel-costs-program-over-to-ottawa-an-option-health-minister\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Turning medical travel costs program over to Ottawa an \u2018option\u2019: Health minister - The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"With federal funding for a program covering Nunavut Inuit\u2019s medical travel costs set to end at the end of this month, Health Minister John Main says turning administration of it back to Ottawa remains an \u201coption.\u201d \u201cTime\u2019s running out,\u201d Main said March 11 of the Non-Insured Health Benefits program during an interview. \u201cWe really want to have an agreement in place [with Indigenous Services Canada] so we can plan properly, so we don\u2019t have this huge gap or a huge hole in our budget.\u201d The NIHB is funded by Indigenous Services Canada and administered by the Government of Nunavut. 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Main also suggested the possibility of turning administration of the program over to\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/18\/turning-medical-travel-costs-program-over-to-ottawa-an-option-health-minister\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TurtleIslandNews\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-03-18T12:24:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/facebooklogo.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"725\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"483\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lynda Powless\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@newsattheturtle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@newsattheturtle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lynda Powless\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/03\\\/18\\\/turning-medical-travel-costs-program-over-to-ottawa-an-option-health-minister\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/03\\\/18\\\/turning-medical-travel-costs-program-over-to-ottawa-an-option-health-minister\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Lynda Powless\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/7b188fd7503577895ef8b306988cd458\"},\"headline\":\"Turning medical travel costs program over to Ottawa an \u2018option\u2019: Health minister\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-03-18T12:24:31+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/03\\\/18\\\/turning-medical-travel-costs-program-over-to-ottawa-an-option-health-minister\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":313,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"National News\",\"ticker\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/03\\\/18\\\/turning-medical-travel-costs-program-over-to-ottawa-an-option-health-minister\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/03\\\/18\\\/turning-medical-travel-costs-program-over-to-ottawa-an-option-health-minister\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/03\\\/18\\\/turning-medical-travel-costs-program-over-to-ottawa-an-option-health-minister\\\/\",\"name\":\"Turning medical travel costs program over to Ottawa an \u2018option\u2019: Health minister - 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