Government Services Minister Bill Shorten has announced that you can now get a digital version of your Medicare and Health Care cards in the myGov app, alongside your COVID vaccine certificate and concession cards.
The myGov app, which is free to download from the Apple App store and Google Play, allows users to be able to get all the government services and payments in an easy to use app with a built in wallet, similar to what Service NSW offers for say drivers licenses, white cards and so on
Minister Shorten has said that:
“As with all items in the myGov wallet, the Medicare card has protections against fraud and theft, including a hologram and QR code,” along with “The animated hologram shows that the card is not just a screenshot and the QR code can be scanned by health professionals to confirm the card is genuine and valid.”
The myGov app will be similar to what NSW residents currently use through the Service NSW app which aims to one-stop-shop service and app, where Minister Shorten has stated they would like the myGov app to become a service where people can also renew passports and enroll to vote.
The Australian Government wants the myGov app to become a service where users can use the app to verify their identity with banks, telcos such as Telstra, Optus, Vodafone and more alongside utility providers as a way stop people having to hand over their identity documents all the time and making the whole ecosystem more secure and less vulnerable.
Minister Shorten has further stated:
“This is just the beginning. I’ve already announced that later this year, people will have the option of adding their NSW driver license to their myGov app,”
Whilst this is good news, having two seperate and similar apps like Service NSW where people can have digital versions of their drivers licenses, photo card and a few other services and then the myGov app for everything federal government wise will lead to some confusion in the short term.
If the Australian government and the states can co-operate in having one unified app that would be far beneficial but like everything in politics, it will require lengthy talks and possible disagreements but if they do and can pull it off, only time will truly tell.
Not sure what the difference is between the card in the Medicare app vs the card inside the MyGov app.