New Manitoban’s six-month wait for health card has her avoiding doctor visit, fearing big bill after surgery

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This article was published 21/12/2023 (626 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

After slipping on ice and snapping her arm, an Ontario woman who relocated to Winnipeg fears she may end up on the hook for thousands of dollars in medical expenses, despite her best efforts to obtain a Manitoba Health card.

Elizabeth Gendron is one of potentially thousands of new Manitobans suffering from a months-long processing backlog for the paperwork critical to accessing health care in the province.

Meanwhile, contradictory information from the provincial government makes it unclear whether the backlog is growing or shrinking, and how many people might be impacted.

“I no longer have health coverage anywhere in Canada and I’ve been a Canadian citizen all my life,” Gendron told the Free Press Thursday.

“This is not something that anybody should have to deal with.”

Gendron, 41, has been waiting to receive her personal health identification number since successfully applying for coverage in July.

After breaking her arm in October, hospital staff asked her to sign legal documents acknowledging that, without a PHIN, she could be asked to pay for roughly $3,000 in medical expenses relating to the injury.

While she will qualify to be reimbursed by the province once her application is processed, the threat of the up-front expense left her hesitant to return to the doctor.

“I’m actually pushing back and not seeing my doctor, and she is not sending any referrals,” Gendron said, explaining how she required surgery to treat her broken arm and may require followup appointments.

“Luckily, they haven’t charged me up front. That was the one thing that actually saved me because I am not in a position to pay thousands in medical bills… at some point, I am expecting a massive bill.” she said.

According to an online notice, the Manitoba Health is currently processing health card applications dating back to July 6, if the numbers are accurate, then the backlog has increased by roughly 33 per cent since Oct. 13 — the last time the Free Press reported on the issue.

Now at 5 1/2 months, the delay is well beyond the department’s four-week processing target, and exceeds wait times in Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia and Nova Scotia, according to officials in each province.

An email statement from the Manitoba government disputed that the backlog — which began during the COVID-19 pandemic — has grown in recent months, saying it has actually been reduced by 50 per cent and continues to decrease on a weekly basis.

The province did not respond to requests to clarify how the backlog is being measured, and why there is an apparent discrepancy between the statement and the processing times listed on Manitoba Health’s website.

It also did not respond to questions regarding the average wait times to receive a new or replacement card, how many applications are being submitted daily and how many staff are assigned to process such requests.

Last September, a government spokeswoman said Manitoba Health’s 16-member team receives about 1,000 applications, 800 phone calls and up to 300 in-person visits per day.

A surge of newcomers from Ukraine and elsewhere have increased demand for services and contributed to delays, the spokeswoman said.

“The department continues to work as quickly as possible to eliminate the backlog,” the statement said.

Before the pandemic, the typical turnaround was 10-15 days for applications submitted by email, mail or fax.

Canadian citizens who move to Manitoba are encouraged to apply for a health card within three months of arriving in the province to ensure a seamless transition from their previous province’s coverage. However, due to the protracted wait times, such newcomers can find themselves in limbo as they wait to receive approval, said Thomas Linner, director of the Manitoba Health Coalition.

“It’s the kind of thing that we are not supposed to have to face in Canada. We pride ourselves in a universal public health-care system, but we don’t seem to be good at making out bureaucracy match our ideals,” Linner said.

“When we are treating people like this, we are actually harming both ourselves, the person involved and our health-care systems because we are eroding trust in that universal public health-care system.”

tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca