Despite its name, Alberta’s Health Statutes Amendment Act, 2025, is not health care legislation.
The purpose of the law that was granted Royal Assent on Dec. 11 last year is to destroy public health care as we know it, not just in Alberta but throughout Canada, by legislating two-tier health care. It may well succeed in that objective.
But at base it is an insurance law, because in addition to bringing American-style cash-register health care to Alberta – and through Canada’s trade agreements with the United States and other countries opening a back door to the same thing in every other province and territory – it uses private insurance to undermine public health care.
A short and clear report by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and the Edmonton-based Parkland Institute released in the wee hours this morning outlines in plain language how these objectives will be achieved by Bill 11 if the federal government can’t find the courage to enforce the Canada Health Act.
Written by researchers Andrew Longhurst of the CCPA and Rebecca Graff-McRae of the Parkland Institute, The End of Canadian Medicare? outlines in plain language 10 ways that without a sharp national response the blandly named act will undermine and likely destroy public health care in Canada. (The question mark in the title, it’s said here, isn’t necessary. This is exactly what is intended by the far-right ideologues who drafted and passed this act.)
- The key provision of the bill allows physicians to work simultaneously in the public health-care system and bill their private patients for the same services delivered more speedily. A large body of international evidence shows this will not only mean unequal access based on income but increase wait times for most of us.
- By allowing all doctors to engage in “dual practice” medicine, the legislation will let physicians pressure patients to pay or go to the back of the line. It will also deprive the public system of physicians who will want to focus on the more profitable private pay market. As we shall see in Point 10, this is intentional.
- By creating Canada’s first private health insurance market, the law will drive up health care costs, just like in the United States. “… The cost of the same basket of services is bid up by increasing profits, often disguised as ‘administrative costs,’” the authors explain. “The result is that health care costs rise rapidly for the government (the public insurance plan), placing a greater burden on the public plan.” Over time, this results in governments narrowing the scope of insured services.
- Private payments increase public wait times. “Alberta’s two-tier system will not reduce public wait times.” Instead, it will “increase public wait times as physicians and surgeons focus their time in the lucrative and less-complex private-pay market.”
- Bill 11 will open the door to hospital user fees. The legislation establishes “non-insured hospital services” and “enhanced goods and services,” as yet undefined by the UCP. Regardless, that ensures patients will have to pay more to get less.
- It “muddies the definition of hospital” to let in for-profit hospital operators. “Governments engaged in privatization initiatives tend to blur the definitions, so the very essence of public entities lose their meaning and confuse citizens. In Alberta, the government is doing exactly that.”
- Bill 11 aims to encourage anti-social private-pay insurance plans for private-pay health services. This is a feature, not a bug. Big profits will result.
- It encourages hospitals to compete for revenue. “The Alberta government is creating health-care insurance and provider markets where every patient is seen as a source of revenue.” Not incidentally, this will increase the cost of operating hospitals, which will now require bigger billing and collections departments.
- It is bound to attract U.S. health care insurance and delivery corporations – and like toenail fungus, once we’ve got ’em, they’ll be almost impossible to eliminate. This is the key point of Mr. Longhurst’s and Dr. Graff-McRea’s report, if you ask me. “Once these corporations enter the Canadian market, they will become entrenched and protected by trade and investment agreements.” Not only will we have U.S.-style health care, “we will have U.S. health care.”
- Dual physician practice and private health care require long public wait times. After all, the business case for private care is long wait times for everyone with less money. Count on it, if the UCP Government remains in power, it will make sure that wait times increase.
Two other points not mentioned in the report are worth considering:
- Bill 11 will increase tax revenues for the government through its 3-per-cent tax on premiums for “sickness insurance,” a cost that will inevitably be passed on to citizens.
- Unions will negotiate contracts that require employers to contribute to employees’ insurance coverage, raising costs and reducing profits for other industries, not to mention the public sector.
The UCP is bound to respond to the report’s criticisms by repeating its questionable claim that it’s not introducing U.S.-style health care, but rather European-style health care. There are, of course, more than 40 distinct health care systems in Europe. So which ones? The universality of European plans’ universal coverage varies from country to country.
At every turn, though, despite the UCP’s rhetoric, the reforms the Smith Government proposes lead straight to the nightmare south of the 49th Parallel.
The report’s 11th point – introduced presumably for symbolic consistency with the number of the bill when it was introduced in the Legislature last year – actually proposes a solution to this ideologically driven effort to wreck Canada’s single-payer health care system. (One also suspects the UCP put this bill 11th in their legislative lineup to mirror Ralph Klein’s 2000 Bill 11, the Health Care Protection Act, which failed in the face of strong public opposition to its privatization push.)
So the report’s 11th point declares that Bill 11 ignores the universality and accessibility principles of the Canada Health Act, which puts federal funding for the Alberta health care system in jeopardy.
Remember, if the UCP succeeds, other Conservative-run provinces, naturally, will plead “nothing we can do” and try to do the same thing. “The more provinces that join Alberta, the greater the likelihood that it will lead to the dismantling of the Canada Health Act as the federal framework that upholds provincial public health insurance plans,” the authors say. “This could end could end Canadian medicare as we know it.”
Not could, though. Would. Will.
If it chooses, Ottawa can block this by enforcing the Canada Health Act.
Mr. Longhurst and Dr. Graff-McRae concluded: “Will the federal government remain silent on the potential for multiple violations of the Canada Health Act? Will civil society be compelled to seek a court order to force the federal government to enforce the Canada Health Act?”
The answer is probably. The Smith Government has thought of this. Arguably, that is one of the motives of the premier’s ongoing separation shakedown of the rest of Canada – although that’s not to say separation doesn’t remain their UCP’s ultimate goal.
Likewise, a Conservative government in Ottawa, especially one led by Pierre Poilievre, would probably repeal or significantly declaw the Canada Health Act.
Anyone who remembers when Ralph Klein was premier, will remember the immense damage that he did to the public healthcare system in Alberta. Starved it of funding in every way possible, by seeing hospitals in various locations face closure, and get blown to smithereens. On top of that, numerous nurses were handed pink slips. Multiple people had nearly died, or did die from his blatant stupidity. Lawsuits commenced, but we don’t know what those amounts of the settlements were, because the provincial government kept those things mum. However, we can conclude that they payouts were substantial, because the families of the deceased ended up like they had won a substantial jackpot in the lottery. Ralph’s Klein’s intention was to have private for profit healthcare in Alberta.
Here we go again with the UCP. It is their obvious intention to have private for profit healthcare in Alberta. Danielle Smith is known to be dishonest, and she certainly fooled people before the last provincial election in Alberta by saying that the UCP will preserve public healthcare in Alberta. That isn’t happening. Under the very bad leadership of the UCP, people have died, from the UCP’s messing with the public healthcare system in Alberta. Lawsuits will likely happen from this too.
Canadians were smart enough to not make Pierre Poilievre Prime Minister, because they know too well that he would align with Danielle Smith and would want private for profit healthcare in Canada, like she does in Alberta. Anyone that has relatives in the United States will tell you how they go broke by having to pay out of pocket for healthcare over there.
Whenever the reports come out with the UCP’s MH Care (Corrupt Care) scandal, which cost hundreds of millions of dollars, that will also show what the intensions are with the UCP and healthcare in Alberta.
I wish I could print what I really think of Smith and her gang of traitors. One word will have to suffice EVIL.
Thank you for publicizing this report.
It will be interesting to see how our rich-banker-conservative-Liberal PM acts.
Small issue where words have been repeats in the line:
“This could end could end Canadian medicare as we know it.”
Is there any politician in elected office in Canada more destructive than Danielle Smith?
She does face stiff competition from Scott Moe and Doug Ford in that regard.
There comes a point when the Alberta separatist movement seems far too convenient for the UCP’s ends to be coincidence. How is it that a UCP constituency chair and leading fundraiser became CEO for the Alberta Prosperity Project? Are they one and the same?
https://www.lakelandtoday.ca/bonnyville-news/the-heartland-of-alberta-separatists-in-the-lakeland-10847940
I see zero degrees of separation. I’ve begun to wonder who put these people up to this, as I see no daylight at all between the UCP and APP.
Privatization of health care is for the wealthy and insurance company owners. The rest of us have everything to lose and nothing to gain. Contrary to what the loudest mouths in this province say, money does not grow on trees. Lines of credit or loans come due and must be repaid. Most of us do not have a gifting policy or offshore bank accounts. Most of us would be fired by our employers for taking “gifts” from those seeking favours in return, or “influence peddling”. Most of us are not in a position to escape to a non-extradition country if our wrong-doing or even outright fraud comes to the attention of the police.
Poverty awaits, one private hospitalization away. If you think a couple of hundred dollars in a health savings account would pay for a private hospital stay, give your head a shake and step into the real world. Private health services come with a price tag.
Sylvestre is a traitor and should be tried and treated as such. Boycott Bonnyville and the vile supporters there.
Conservatives in their current iteration do not want to use tax money for anything that involves sharing. When in office, conservatives do not govern they simply milk the public purse for their own gain. Me. Me. Me and only me is the UCP way. As you know, public taxes are a bulwark against profit making. The idea of using public money to level the playing field for those who simply cannot afford health care insurance is an idea to which conservatives do not subscribe. One reason it is said that conservative times are tough times is because many people get left behind and this has in large part resulted in many and an increasing number of people going without. If the Federal Government is loath to enforce the Canada Health Act, then the UCP and their supporters will surely destroy the public health care system. And to what end do these UCP malcontents ram stringent and cruel ideas onto the general public? Only the wealthy gain and everyone else can do what? Die? Believe me when I tell you from personal experience that conservatives take great joy in making life miserable for as many people as possible, namely those who conservatives see as weak or intolerable. So, the future for seniors who cannot afford private health insurance means no access to any health care and conservatives are happy about that idea. No wonder many seniors are saying that the UCP is out to decrease the senior population in Alberta. As for the younger people, they too shall pay – for their health care and more for supporting conservative ideologies – I say this because apparently there is a groundswell of young people who are turning to the conservatives. Seems as though the days of sharing are over and it is a self indulgent world where everyone is in it for themselves save those groups who stand apart from the onslaught of conservative fascism. To see what is happening in the USA – the horror of it all, and to think that is lovely is unbelievable and yet it is occurring right now. Believe the reality whereby many people seem to be hell bent on being crusty, intolerant individuals. Message to Canada from the UCP, conservatives hate Canada. Canada the country of sharing is being turned into conservative Canada, a place where only the wealthy thrive and a place where people are at odds with one another. Choose sharing and caring or choose greed and cruelty. Sadly many choose the latter.
Wait till we see the recommendations of the new Teacher Advisory Council for the education system. Wonder what ‘diverse perspectives’ will be thrust upon us? Or how about that Water Amendment Act designed to streamline regulatory requirements and ‘free’ our water. Free for whom?
We ain’t seen nothing yet. They got PLANS.
@Emily, they certainly DO.
Right now Dixie Dani is going after the judges.
Trump’s playbook, all the way.
Albertans need to get on this ASAP or they won’t just be joining the USA, they’ll be sucked into the fascist regime of it, full stop.
You know things are up when the premier of Alberta met with U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra on January 38, 2026 before her scheduled meeting with the PM Mark Carney during the First Ministers’ conference. She posted photos to X.
https://www.pm.gc.ca/en/news/media-advisories/2026/01/27/wednesday-january-28-2026
Then we found out yesterday about her letter wanting control over federal judges all the way up to the Supreme Court of Canada.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/alberta-withhold-funding-judges-9.7072804
This points in the direction of Danielle Smith asking her American friends to intervene, should the courts find that separatist referendum unconstitutional. That would be a huge problem for all Canadians, not just Albertans. “Unelected judges” are the way Canada rolls. Smith has an issue with the way Canada was set up since 1867.
Why bother with things like the Clarity Act and years of negotiations when a U.S. intervention (invasion) would make it all moot?
https://edmontonjournal.com/news/local-news/rules-not-by-rules-alberta-scenarios-for-separation
(It might seem like a crazy idea for a separatist movement to choose the name of a feminine hygiene product as their moniker, but nobody said any of this was sane. I can’t under it.)
28.
watch for the “thinkstank” Second Street to reinforce and advocate for this.
It’s the US based AtlasNetwork advocacy org setup to discredit and question public medicare, that won’t admit it’s a US based organization.
https://web.archive.org/web/20200923000015/https://www.atlasnetwork.org/partners/global-directory/secondstreet.org
Your right, it’s the exact same rhetoric and BS, that Smith and her allies are spewing. Thanks for sharing.
Every move Dixie Dani makes is calculated.
But not by her.
She’s just the face. What’s behind her is the American oligarchy and she either doesn’t know they have their hand up her azz or she’s so greedy, incompetent and power-hungry she agreed to let them shove their hand up her azz to be their dummy.
Her job is to destroy everything she can then crybully when people call her on it. Her job is to obfuscate the truth of everything her government does to create havoc and the distrust from the electorate who don’t know what to believe. Her job is to keep those little punches coming so that there’s no obvious knock-out…but the electorate, the courts, the feds and offices of accountability stagger from the constant flurry of blows.
Once you see that pattern coming from political figures, it’s impossible to unsee it.
Watch who manipulates the news cycles. And how often. The mainstream reports, the news influencers and commenters follow the mainstream and the constant chaos becomes impossible to follow or fight.
This is a fight that needs to happen with protesters on the streets in large numbers. Why, you ask? Because it will absolutely screw with the separatist agenda. Because it will be the face of resistance to Dixie Dani’s destruction of a cherished Canadian institution.
Trump’s cronies can’t claim Alberta wants to separate when they’re fighting for MORE government healthcare…not none.
These days, there is an ongoing campaign to rehabilitate the image of G. W. Bush, who was a terrible president. Since there is now a worse president in the WH, Bush is now seen as a better than good president.
CBC coverage of the Skippy’s leadership review was co-hosted by Jason Kenney, who was a very bad premier in Alberta. I suspect the rehabilitation of Jason Kenney is coming.
He’s just been interviewed on David Herle’s “The Herle Burley” podcast for the third time. He’s just as smarmy and ideological as always, but when viewed in the light of the current level of batshitedness (is that a word?) in the news today, he comes across as at least rational and level-headed. How low is that bar now for that to be the case?
I remember when the Alberta PC’s lost to the NDP and reports coming out of the Alberta Legislature, were talking about all the paper shredders and the amount of paper being shredded. To me that’s a sign of corruption. Thinking of this makes me wonder, just exactly what has been promised to Smith and this UPC government, that they are going after public health care with a vengeance. It must be a lot, because I’ve never seen this level of corruption before. And the worst of it is, no one seems to be paying attention to what’s going on. With Smith being one of the best bullshitters of our time, if the NDP win the next election, the tax payers bill from Iron Mountain will be enormous.
As one Con-separatist said at the latest UCP separatist convention, ‘we would probably end up as a third-world country, but that is better than being run over by Ottawa!’ I happen to agree with her noting the third-world status part. Albertans cannot afford this current government. But will Carney act for the majority in this province who could not afford private “health care profits”?
And there she is folks, still leading in the polls. Perhaps it is time to start blaming the people that insist on voting for Smith and the UCP. Absolutely nothing of what she is doing is a surprise. Smith has been telling us daily for a decade how she thinks things should be run. When are we going to come to the obvious conclusion that the majority of Albertans embrace what she is doing?
The Free Alberta Strategy, co-authored by close associates of Danielle Smith, who has introduced or tried to introduce legislation directly lifted from it.from it like the Alberta Sovereignty Act or the Alberta Pension Plan and Police Force, contains the following as one of its goals: “Opting out of all federal programs that interfere with provincial areas
of jurisdiction, including health, education, resource development,
environmental regulation, and property rights.” Health and education.
This was published in 2021. And Smith has been talking about working around the Canada Health Act to privatize hospitals to anyone who would listen for years. It’s not like we didn’t know what their intention was, or could know if we choose to do so. I recommend to everyone to read the Free Alberta Strategy, a concise document written very clearly. All the UCP’s legislative program is there.
Alfredo Louro: I read the Free Alberta Strategy. Very disturbing.
In some way’s Klein’s third way is a good comparison to what Smith and the UCP are doing, although they have made as bad of a mess or worse of health care, they seem to be more stealthy about it. However, the headlines of people dying in emergency after hours without attention or care are still not good, nor is it that some major cities in Alberta have now had no new hospitals built since the late 1980’s despite doubling in size.
I feel many Albertans are starting to notice that like with their underfunding of education, health care in Alberta again is suffering, although they all may not yet have figured out that this is deliberate by the UCP to facilitate more privatization. Surely the pointless reorganization of AHS into four parts does not seem helpful either and will only result in more chaos in a system that is already struggling.
So, I see that quietly in recent polls the UCP’s lead has gone steadily down to 2 to 3 percent now. I feel much like with Klein, it will be public pressure that will be needed to stop this. Smith and the UCP may be less likely to continue down this path if they realize this will cost them more of the razor thin political support they currently have.
Just a friendly reminder to commenters on how to break their longer posts into paragraphs.
If you hit SHIFT+ENTER, you can break up your posts for readability.
Those of us who struggle to absorb long paragraphs online, thank you 😀
The Federal government has not enforced the Health Care Act for a long time now and it will not do it. The liberals are very clear that they do not mind. I remember the days when the minister of Health would warn these moves very clearly, but that was in the 80s and 90s. I wrote an email very recently to the minister asking her why she was not doing more to protect the Health Act and she did not even bother replying with the usual loser letter of ‘We care very much to protect…..”.
It is clear to me that we are desperate to allow business into health care and judging by the state of our system in Edmonton, it will be very soon, because people can no longer take the wait to get some decent medical care.
I doubt the neo-liberals will protect the system. They do not even mention these moves by the provinces anymore – whatever!
People will realize what they are losing soon. Unfortunately it always has to happen for people to realize what they had. Right wing fascists know very well what they are doing.
How could it be anything but what it is with the thoroughly indoctrinated deepest of deep thinkers in charge?
“During the podcast, Smith discussed her past at the Fraser Institute and the far-right Reform Party,, describing herself as a libertarian and adherent to the “philosophy” of “Atlas Shrugged” author Ayn Rand. “I try to read Atlas Shrugged every few years and I’m in the process of trying to build out a broader philosophy,” Smith explained.”
https://pressprogress.ca/danielle-smith-albertas-public-sector-workers-need-to-accept-austerity-and-pain/
“Longhurst sees a pattern. The failed attempt to privatize laboratory services wasted more than $100 million. Alberta’s rapid privatization of surgeries has increased per-surgery costs, while failing to decrease wait times. “A lot of these misadventures are incredibly costly to the taxpayer and corrosive to a well-functioning public service,” he said, adding that any organization that hollows out its workforce “is going to lose an incredible amount of institutional knowledge and expertise.””
https://thetyee.ca/News/2026/02/03/Danielle-Smith-AHS-Firing-Spree/
‘Seeing a pattern’ in the completely obvious, or what has been self evident for donkey’s years regarding the donkey lobbyist in the Legislature and her lobbyist comrades:
“Medical imaging companies lobbied Alberta’s government to expand its use of for-profit facilities, a policy now being pursued by provincial health authorities.”
https://www.lakelandtoday.ca/beyond-local/medical-imaging-companies-lobbied-for-private-service-expansion-alberta-11452721
BTW, Media is remiss and possibly doesn’t read widely. They’re certainly not credible in letting so much Randian bullcrap be spewed by public figures without scrutiny.
Every time some public figure mentions Ayn Rand’s philosophy the next comeback should be, “Are you aware that Ayn Rand spent her retirement in poverty *on the public pension* that she claimed to despise even though she made millions of dollars during her career and saved none of it? Where is the proof that Rand’s economic philosophy is credible?” They could even just ask the second question and leave the speaker sputtering for an answer.
(BTW some of these clowns should be forced to play Bioshock where the end result of pure libertarianism is brilliantly portrayed)