Province replacing paper health cards with plastic, digital options

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This article was published 28/03/2024 (564 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The province is tearing up Manitobans’ paper health cards.

“It’s 2024 — your health coverage shouldn’t rely on a torn, ripped-up health card,” Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew said in a statement Thursday.

“Our budget will bring Manitoba into the 21st century with a plastic card and a digital option. It just makes sense.”

The NDP government’s first budget is being released Tuesday.

Finance Minister Adrien Sala would not say what the cards will cost, but earlier this month the government admitted that plastic proof-of-immunization cards issued during the COVID-19 pandemic cost $1.67 each, compared to eight cents for a paper family health card.

The government issued 1.25 million vaccination cards.

Darlene Jackson, president of the 12,000-member Manitoba Nurses Union, said the switch is long overdue.

“Plastic cards are a great idea,” said Jackson. “The paper health cards are very long past their best-use date. The numbers fade and they tear. They need to be shown at every appointment, and every time you pull it out they wear.”

Jackson said health cards are a better investment than the limited-use immunization cards were.

“You’ll use the health card for the rest of your life,” she said. “These are more long-term.”

The province said details on the material and design will be shared in the coming months, and the cards are expected to be released sometime next year.

The move is also part of a larger investment to move the health-care system away from paper and fax machines and towards electronic patient records.

“Manitobans have been very vocal about the need to make improvements and we have heard them,” Kinew said.

The government will be also be reviewing the application process to make it easier for Manitobans to apply for their first health card or make a change to an existing one, the release said.

And, faced with a long backlog of issuing health cards, the government has committed to a two-week service standard for new health card applications.

“After years of stories from Manitobans waiting months and months for a health card to arrive… the government more than doubled staffing capacity to speed up processing times and eliminate a backlog of more than 24,000 applications,” a statement said.

For more information, people can call 204-786-7101 or 1-800-392-1207 (toll-free), and support staff has been added to deal with inquiries.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca