I’m due to travel to California on a business trip next week. However, I no longer have a valid driver’s license, and my passport recently expired.

I went to get a new photo ID health card last week but could not do so because I couldn’t prove I lived in Ontario. Although their Web site mentioned having mortgage papers (which I did have) or a pay stub (which I also had) it didn’t state that they needed to be dated within the last few months. I finally got a cable bill and a current mortgage statement and went back there on Monday. That worked, and I got a new card, but only a temporary one. The actual one (with photo ID) will be arriving in the mail in the next 2-3 weeks.

I checked with AMEX travel, and using expired photo ID, along with a current, valid, temporary ID (without a photo) is not legally sufficient. They will only accept a single piece of up to date photo ID. (Although, you could get lucky and get across the border anyway, depending on the compassion of the border guard – but I was told not to count on it. Michelle went to Florida in the Summer using an expired passport, but she flew out of Buffalo, not out of a Canadian airport – and she may have simply been lucky herself in having the person who looked at hers not notice anything.)

I was told, however, that you could pay more and get a “rush” passport. Which I did. I got photos taken, and my dentist to notorize my form. My new passport will be ready to pick up on Friday. Which means that I should actually be able to go on this business trip after all – saving me the embarrassment of having to cancel (and probably paying the plane fare myself) because of something so stupid.

But, through all of this, it seems to me that if you don’t have a permanent residence and/or can’t prove that you have one it would be impossible to do anything. Which means that the homeless, among other things, can never get a health card. That seems just a little bit morally questionable to me. I’m hoping that there’s some process in place that I’m just missing that would allow them to get health care despite this issue…