More than two decades after Ontario started phasing out its red-and-white health cards, the government is setting a firm end date to cancel all remaining ones. The province has been gradually removing them from the system and issuing residents more secure photo ID health cards since Bob Rae was premier, but now the Ministry of Health is working with ServiceOntario to set a final day after which red-and-white cards will no longer be accepted. Twenty-five years later, there are still 400,000 in circulation, representing about three per cent of all Ontario health cards, a Ministry of Health spokesman said. Fraud issuesWhen the photo ID cards were first announced, the government estimated the red-and-white cards were being used for $65 million in fraudulent claims a year. There were about 300,000 more health cards in circulation than there were people in Ontario, the auditor said.

Source: CBC News May 09, 2019 10:07 UTC