PAYE return Medical Card question

Being retired my wife and I found that it is a lot cheaper to spend half the year in asia living with her family in Thailand where the cost of living averages out about 1/3rd compared to Ireland. For the year 2015 I discovered that I actually spent 188 days away from Ireland. Now I am trying to prepare my tax return and it seems to indicate that I could legitimately say I was not resident for that year. Because of low income (our combined state pension from three EU lands is less than the Irish norm) I would like to reduce my PAYE/USC tax burden in any allowable way possible. My worry is the question on the PAYE return asking if I have a medical card, which I do (a full one). My question in short is that if I answer both that I was non-resident and that I also had a medical card, will my medical card be withdrawn as a result?