Manitoba woman says she's in 'dire' situation as year-long wait for new health card drags on

A Manitoba woman who applied for a new health card after moving back to the province just over a year ago says she doesn't have the time or money to keep waiting. 

Marjorie Wiebe, 42, applied for a Manitoba health card in December 2022 after moving back to her home province from Alberta two months earlier.

She's still waiting for it to arrive, she said.

Wiebe, who now lives in Pinawa — a small town about 100 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg — says when she applied over a year ago, she was told there would be a four- to six-week wait for her health card. She phoned for answers after that time had passed.

"I was basically told that there are a lot of people [waiting] right now, and that I just need to wait," she told CBC News Wednesday.

A Manitoba Health card is what confirms a resident's eligibility for health benefits — something that's important to Wiebe.

She knew before moving back to Manitoba that her gallbladder would eventually need to be removed, as it over-produces bile.

But her medical condition "wasn't as dire as it is now," she said, as she now has an extremely swollen gallbladder.

"The pain doesn't go away. I still have to get up and work," she said.

"I'm in a position where this could be potentially life-threatening, so I do feel like there should be resources for people like that."

There were 9,180 people waiting for their health card applications to be processed as of Jan. 19, a provincial spokesperson told CBC News in an emailed statement Wednesday — a 62 per cent drop from the waitlist of nearly 25,000 last November.

"The department has made great efforts to reduce the processing times for health cards and continues to work as quickly as possible to reduce the backlog," the spokesperson said.

Once received, health coverage will be backdated to an applicant's date of arrival in Manitoba or the date of their eligible legal status in the country, according to the spokesperson.

Under the federal Canada Health Act, the waiting period to get insured health services for people who move from one province to another cannot be more than three months.

Manitoba Health's website says it is "committed to meeting or surpassing" its standard for processing, which is four weeks for health cards. However, it is currently processing applications from last August, according to its website.

The department's spokesperson didn't give a reason for the current backlog.

Last March, the province said it had eliminated a backlog in processing times for new or replacement health cards created by the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, in a statement to CBC News last month, a provincial spokesperson said Manitoba Health was experiencing service delays due to increased demand for services from thousands of requests from people arriving from Ukraine and other parts of the world. 

Province 'will get folks health cards': Kinew

On Wednesday, Premier Wab Kinew said his government "will get folks health cards."

"That is the plan. We're going to staff up the department of health to ensure health cards get delivered more quickly," he said during an unrelated news conference in Dauphin.

"We will be modernizing the health card in the coming years, but the first commitment is to ensure that you can get a health card when you need it."

Last month, Kinew said he would like to do away with paper medical records in favour of digital documentation that health-care practitioners and patients can access with a swipe of a phone or click of a mouse, but offered no timeline for when that change would be made.

Wiebe has been in touch with Kinew's office, as well as the office of Manitoba's interim Progressive Conservative leader, Wayne Ewasko. Both promised to help her, but she says that is also taking time she does not have.

She paid out of pocket to see a doctor last year, but says she constantly worries about her gallbladder bursting, since she would likely need to be medevaced from her small town for emergency surgery.

"I can't pay for that. Then I'd have to have surgery, and I can't pay for that," she said.

"I don't have any benefits. I don't have any way to access care other than to pay for it myself."

Wiebe is also no longer covered under Alberta Health Services, which covered one of her doctor's appointments last year.

She said she asked Manitoba Health if it's possible to use the nine-digit personal health identification number from her previous Manitoba Health card, or if she could be issued a temporary one.

"They said no and that I have to wait… I know what the number is, but I can't use it. It doesn't work."

The situation is frustrating and has left her reluctant to seek medical care, she said.

"I pay my taxes so I get health care … but I'm not getting health care."