Manitoba spending $6M this year on new plastic health cards that lack features other provinces have
Health minister says people 'overwhelmingly thrilled' by new plastic cards that cost $1.18 per person
Manitoba is spending almost $6 million and hiring the equivalent of 20 full-time workers this year to roll out new plastic health cards that replace often frayed pieces of paper, but they lack features found in health cards from other provinces.
The new plastic cards have no expiry date and no photo, like the paper cards they're replacing.
The new QR code on them isn't currently being used in most health-care facilities — but even if it is, it doesn't provide more information than is printed on the card.
Progressive Conservative health critic Kathleen Cook appreciates the plastic cards, but she questions the province's execution.
"Government should be looking at all of the different factors that need to be worked in, the different improvements they could make," Cook said.
"What concerns me is this just seems like another announcement from the NDP that is long on show and not a lot on substance."
$1.18 per card
After inviting Manitobans to choose the design of the new health cards, the NDP government began accepting online applications in January to replace the paper IDs, which were prone to ripped corners and faded ink.
Since late April, the province has mailed out 208,000 of the more than 394,000 cards it has received applications for.
It costs $1.18 to produce each physical card — a figure the government only disclosed after CBC News told provincial officials it would report on the government's refusal to disclose the amount of public money being spent.
In February, the province responded to a freedom of information request by saying records couldn't be released because it would "reveal the substance of deliberations of cabinet." Then in May, the province said it couldn't reveal the cost for "proprietary reasons," explaining it would violate Manitoba's contract with the company.
The new cards maintain some features from the previous paper format, such as the absence of an expiry date.
Manitoba and Alberta are the only provinces in Canada in which people don't need to renew their health cards.
In a 2015 report, Alberta's auditor general said the lack of an expiry date on health cards leaves them open to abuse, meaning the province could be paying for health care for ineligible recipients.
Not requiring people to renew the cards also means Alberta — now the only province still using paper health cards — may not be properly tracking people who leave the province, the report said.
Cook said the Manitoba government should have heeded this warning.
"I think there was an opportunity here to make an improvement on our health cards."
However, Katie Szilagyi, an assistant law professor at the University of Manitoba, said it is already against the law for patients to misrepresent where they live.
"The other question is: how often is this really happening?" she asked.
"Are there a huge number of people defrauding Manitoba Health? I'm not aware of that as a huge issue."
A new addition to the health card is the QR code, but so far it doesn't do much.
QR code repeats info on card
Most health-care facilities don't have the code readers yet. Locations with the equipment can use it to scan in the information already printed on the card, such as a patient's name, registration number and personal health identification number, but nothing else.
Medical personnel will appreciate not having to jot down that information anymore, Doctors Manitoba president Nichelle Desilets said, but she worries the public will misinterpret what the card can do.
"There are going to be people who assume that they can scan that and see access to all of their medical records and their lab results," Desilets said, explaining that technology exists in other jurisdictions.
"Manitoba is not one of those places."
Desilets, a family physician in Neepawa, said some patients in the emergency department are surprised she doesn't have immediate access to their charts.
The province has vowed to do away with paper medical records in favour of digital documentation, but it hasn't given a timeline.
The new health cards are also missing the photos seen on cards in Quebec, Ontario and B.C.
The province isn't ruling out that addition in the future. A government website says the new plastic cards are part of a "multi-phased initiative," with options like adding a photo and creating an all-in-one personal identification card — the latter an idea scrapped by the former PC government in 2017 — being reviewed in "future phases."
Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara downplayed any suggestions the new health cards will have a short lifespan, though.
"These cards are going to be more and more comprehensive," Asagwara said.
Plans include giving every health-care facility a QR code reader and releasing a digital version of the new card, the minister said.
An archived version of a government website said the digital card would be available at the same time as the plastic version, but the website now says the digital option is "expected to be completed later in 2025."
As of March, the province spent $1.8 million on the transition from paper to plastic cards, which includes the price of the new plastic cards but also mailing and labour costs. An additional $5.7 million is budgeted for this fiscal year.
The Health Department has budgeted for the equivalent of 20 full-time staff "due to the addition of temporary positions associated with the implementation of the new Manitoba health cards," budget estimates say.
The $1.18 for a plastic health card is less than the $1.67 cost for a plastic COVID-19 vaccination card but higher than the $0.09 cost for a single family paper health card.
Asagwara said the government was intentional with the features in the revamped health cards.
The QR code is a "safe and secure" method of letting health-care sites digitally scan your personal details, the minister said.
The government hasn't heard concerns around misuse of the cards, and removing the address, which was included in the paper cards, saves people from reapplying every time they move, Asagwara said.
Manitobans are "overwhelmingly thrilled" by the shift to plastic cards, Asagwara said.
"The whole point of going from paper to plastic was to make sure it was durable, it had a long life and that Manitobans can keep that on them, on their person, and use it for health care moving forward."
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