Adieu to my trusty but old Ontario red/white health card

Yesterday, I received written notice that it’s my turn to upgrade my old red/white Ontario health card to the “new” photo ID health card. Only in Ontario would we still be calling a photo ID version of the health card “new” after first being introduced some 21 years ago in 1995.

Alas, I was hoping I would be the last one in Ontario to hold a red/white card so I could keep complaining about Ontario’s lackadaisical attitude towards this 21-year-old project. After all, 21 years after the start of this project, 1 in 5 Ontarians still have a red/white card. Some 3M of the old red/white magnetic stripe cards are still in circulation. By my calculations, it could take another 10 years before red/white cards are fully replaced regardless of the fact that Ontario has admitted that there are more active health cards in circulation than there are living Ontarians. The Province needs to look after eligible Ontario residents but who really knows who is holding those extra cards and how much the “snail’s pace” at which this project is progressing has cost Ontario taxpayers over the past 21 years?

There is no question the (not so new) photo ID Ontario Health Card contains many built-in verification features like an expiry date to ensure that we are who the card says we are when presented to receive services which prevent and reduce health fraud. But can you imagine if your bank or even your favourite retailer had not kept your credit cards up to date with existing technology to prevent fraud? We’ve all received new cards (or several versions) from organizations with really large customer bases over the past 20 or so years and they seem to be able to handle the task We also receive monthly statements from those organizations to ensure there is no fraud taking place using those same cards. Yet, within a time frame of 21 years, Ontario has not been able to complete the task of phasing out red/white health cards and no one seems to care. And, no matter if we have a red/white card or a “new” card, we have no way of knowing if charges made to our health number are accurate, because there’s there’s absolutely no transparency to that information. Or rather, Ontarians are not privy to their own information.

It may come as a surprise to many fellow Ontarians that no matter if they hold a red/white card or a photo ID Ontario health card, address changes given to their physician or to a hospital or to Service Ontario to change a driver’s license are NOT carried over to their Health Card. The technology is not just there in 2016 apparently. This must make tracking down real Ontarians with red/white cards more difficult because people have a tendency to move within a span of some 21 years. Many would wrongly assume that giving their new address to their Doctor or to the hospital each time they visit would actually “update” those who need to know like the Ministry of Health. But we live in Ontario.

I have changed my address with the Ministry of health, 4 times in the 21 years so tracking me down was not really the issue I’m not exactly sure what the issue was in taking more than 21 years to get to me. I had assumed that the Ministry of Health was just going to wait for those of us with red/white cards to die off. However, now that Service Ontario has finally made it my turn for a “new” health card after 21 years, they have given me a short 30 days to get to one of there centres before my health coverage expires.

Both ironically and very sadly, while the Province acknowledges that eliminating the old health cards will cut down on health fraud, a CBC report recently quoted Ms. Anne-Marie Flanagan of Ontario’s Ministry of Government and Consumer Sevices as saying:

“At this point there’s no specific deadline but, we are encouraging people to get the new photo health cards. The government will be phasing out the red and white health card in the future,”

I would say that “the future” could be a really long time but that’s the (vague) Ontario we love ….?

Let’s be clear that it’s now 2016 and in this digital age, I don’t just want a “new” health card for me and the other eligible Ontarians who still have red/white health cards.

I want and every other Ontario taxpayer should want an annual statement of charges to our health cards, regardless of who is paying the bill. That to me would really be a help to reducing and preventing health fraud in Ontario for a health system that is desperately under pressure. Unfortunately, given that it’s taken more than 21 years to complete 80% of the Ontario ID health card project; I suspect such statements will not arrive anytime soon unless my fellow Ontarians make it a real issue. Alas, I live in Ontario.