Province says progress is being made on health card backlog
Posted January 16, 2024 4:29 pm.
Last Updated January 16, 2024 7:27 pm.
The Government of Manitoba says it’s making progress in addressing the backlog of health card requests in the province, but some trying to get the critical piece of paper are continuing to experience major health card hiccups.
“Whoever the minister of health has been in the history of this province, somehow they have not stayed on top of this and realized they’ve got a problem — which obviously was a major problem — because it’s now mushroomed,” said Alan Glen, who says he’s been waiting more than seven months for his health card.
Glen believes the issue — which he understands was inherited by the current government — needs to be addressed, calling the current system “flawed.”
“This should not happen,” he stated. “To me, it is just wrong that Canadian citizens should move from province to province and have to go through this type of thing.”
Information sent to CityNews from the province indicates the backlog is shrinking, dropping to 9,970 applications in early January from 24,453 in mid-November 2023.
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But the drop offers little comfort to people like Glen, who moved from B.C. to help his son and wife with their two children as his daughter-in-law battles cancer, saying the lack of health card has added to the stress.
“Civil servants: they’re seldom civil and usually of no service and this has confirmed this for me,” said Glen.
After spending hours on the phone and finally connecting with Manitoba Health, he learned his application had been stalled and considered incomplete. Glen says at no time was he ever notified and had to find the reason for the delay himself.
He’s been lucky, finding a physician who has postponed billing until his health card issue is resolved, otherwise the pensioner says he’d be on the hook for the bill.
“Health Manitoba tells me: ‘well just pay the bills and we’ll reimburse you.’ and I say: ‘Well how long is it going to take for me to get reimbursed if it takes me this long to get a health card,'” he explained.
For Glen, the backlog is proof positive the system needs work, and while this is the second instance CityNews is aware of where people say they were not informed their application was incomplete, the province claims it won’t leave applicants in a lurch.
A response from Manitoba Health reads: “In some cases, several attempts are required to reach an applicant to obtain the missing information.”
The department says it reaches out by letter, email, and phone — or all three — noting roughly 40 per cent of all applications are incomplete.
Manitoba’s new health minister said in a statement the NDP government is on the case when it comes to reducing the backlog to get Manitobans the documents they need.
“Making sure that Manitobans have access to health cards is essential to our government. Reducing the backlog has meant that many people are getting their cards sooner, which is an important step forward. If issues arise during the application process, people deserve to have timely communication and prompt follow-up.”
The current backlog stands at around a month.
