With Alberta’s dual-practice health-care model set to roll out in September, Canada’s health minister is speaking out about why the policy troubles her.
Alberta’s Health Statutes Amendment Act, 2025 (No. 2), also known as Bill 11, passed in Alberta’s legislature late last year. It allows some physicians in the province to provide care in both the private and public health-care fields.
The provincial government has touted the move as one that could relieve the strain on Alberta’s public health-care system.In a recent interview with the Toronto Star, federal Health Minister Marjorie Michel said she had concerns about how the legislation allowing for a dual-practice model could co-exist with the Canada Health Act.
On Monday, Alexandre Bergeron, Michel’s press secretary, confirmed to CBC News that a letter was sent by the federal minister to the Alberta government on July 24, asking the province to protect its public health system.
“As the guardian of the Canada Health Act, our focus is to protect the integrity of the public health-care system and ensure that all Canadians, including every Albertan, can receive health care based on medical need, not on their ability to pay for it,” he wrote in a statement.Bergeron said Michel will continue to work closely with the Alberta government about its concerns with the new model.
In a statement provided to CBC News, Alberta Hospital and Surgical Health Services Minister Adriana LaGrange said the delivery of health care in the province is outside federal jurisdiction.
“Dual practice does not violate the Canada Health Act,” LaGrange said. “The act does not prohibit private practice outside the publicly insured system.
“Albertans who choose to pay privately for eligible elective surgery should be able to do so here at home, rather than travelling out of province as they have done for decades.”
Alberta doctors who hope to qualify for working in both the public and private spheres are required to do a minimum number of hours in the public system.
Experts say case is within federal jurisdiction, to an extent
Steven Lewis, a health policy expert based in Vancouver, said the Alberta government seems poised to enter into a lengthy conflict with Ottawa on the matter.
He said he believes the new model could open up more weaknesses in an already strained public health system. “The Canada Health Act, which is now 42 years old, was originally passed in order to prevent extra-billing that physicians in the public system [had] in some provinces,” Lewis said in an interview.
“They didn’t have to necessarily extra-bill everybody, but they certainly extra-billed some patients and Ottawa stepped in and said, ‘We need legislation to be very clear, you can’t do this.’
“Taking some portion of practice out of the public system and reserving it for some people who are paying extra pretty much has to compromise access in the public system.”
