Roxon brings back health smart card

in brief Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon appeared to resurrect the concept over the weekend of using a smart card to deliver a unique e-health identifier to Australians.

"We've made a decision that every Australian will be allocated a unique health identity," Roxon told The Courier-Mail newspaper. "It would be a card, most likely with a chip that would store your information on it, which you would then provide to health professionals and give them access to it when you wanted them to see it."

The Federal Government has tried several times to introduce a similar system over the past decade; both the HealthConnect and Access Card programs were eventually scrapped after they suffered a lack of interest from the public and unfavourable comparison to the ill-fated Australia Card.