Alberta’s government is laying the legislative groundwork to let more people pay in order to bypass their doctor to get faster access to everything from CT scans to blood tests.

Primary Health Minister Adriana LaGrange introduced a Bill 29, the Health Statutes Amendment Act, 2026 on Monday that, if passed, will allow for rules to fast-track some medical tests without a referral from a health practitioner.

LaGrange said it’s the first step in a previously announced plan to expand privately delivered medical tests.

“This is about adding capacity, not replacing our public system,” LaGrange told reporters Monday before introducing the bill.

“It’s about giving Albertans more control over their health while maintaining the strong public health-care system that we all rely on.”

She said right now, too many Albertans are waiting too long for diagnostic testing.

“Early treatment is often simpler, more effective and less invasive, and it also leads to better outcomes for patients and less pressure on our health-care system,” she said.

LaGrange declined to say which specific medical tests may be included, or how the province may reimburse costs.

She said those details will be clarified in regulations that will be crafted in the coming months.

She confirmed that the government’s plan, announced in October, “hasn’t changed,” although the province may start with “just one or two things and then build on it.”

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In a video released in the fall, Premier Danielle Smith and LaGrange said reforms will permit Albertans to purchase any private diagnostic screening and testing service they wish.

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Alberta introduces dual health-care system allowing more private options

“This includes MRIs, CT scans, full body scans, bloodwork — you name it,” said LaGrange in the video.

“Health professionals and medical organizations will be free to offer these services privately, and supplemental health benefit plans will be able to insure them,” she said.

She added that province aims to spur a flood of investment and health professionals into the province.

Smith said at the time if a privately purchased test identifies a new life-threatening condition, the government will reimburse the costs of that test.

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Will Alberta’s public-private health approach reduce wait times? A deeper look into dual-model practice

On Monday, LaGrange stressed that medically necessary tests ordered by physicians will still be publicly covered and will always get priority across the province.

She said because people will be paying for tests, there will be a market for private providers to meet increased demands.

However, critics have said the plan risks dragging the province into a two-tiered system, siphoning critical staff from public hospitals and exacerbating lengthy wait times in the public system.

The province says current access to publicly funded preventive testing with no out-of-pocket payments requires referrals from a doctor, nurse practitioner, physiotherapist or dentist. Some private clinics and health facilities already provide preventive testing services, but most still require provider referrals.

There are also publicly funded self-referral screening programs delivered through private clinics, including for mammograms, with no out-of-pocket costs.

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Alberta tables legislation to expand private health care

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They called it a “Day of Action for Public Healthcare.”

Health-care workers and supporters of Canada’s public health care system rallied in more than a dozen cities across the country on Monday, including Calgary and Edmonton, pleading for the federal government to protect Canadians from what they claim is an emerging two-tiered health-care system.

In Calgary, they gathered outside Liberal MP Corey Hogan’s office, and in Edmonton, outside the office of Eleanor Olszewski, one of that city’s two government MPs, to protest the changes included in Alberta’s Bill 11.

Officially known as the Health Statutes Amendment Act, Bill 11 was passed by the Alberta legislature in December and allows doctors to work in both the public and private health-care systems, or “dual practice,” as referred to by the province.

“It’s not just an Alberta issue,” said Heather Smith, president of the United Nurses of Alberta. “Creating a two-tier health-care system, that is bad for not just Albertans but bad for Canadians.

“Bill 11 is wrong and the federal government needs to step in and enforce the Canada Health Act and tell Alberta that piece of legislation is bad for Alberta, is bad for Canada, and violates the Canada Health Act.”

While the Alberta government claims the change could reduce wait times by allowing patients to purchase care or pay for medical procedures or surgeries that the government is unwilling or unable to provide, critics fear it will result in those who can afford it getting faster access to care while others will need to wait longer for treatment.

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“You know, it’s a violation of the Canada Health Act very clearly for allowing two-tier American-style health care, but it’s also a bill that changes the rules for insurance,” said Chris Galloway, executive director of Friends of Medicare.

“So allowing for insurance of medically-covered services, which has never been allowed before, and our fear is if we allow American health insurance companies to come in and start insuring those products, under our trade agreements, we’re stuck with them, and that impacts the whole country. Not just Alberta.

“So Alberta is opening the door to American-style health care, two-tier health care and we need the federal government to act now to stop it.”

Reacting to the rally that was held outside his office, Liberal MP Corey Hogan said the protesters raise some “legitimate questions.”

“We need to be asking ourselves, what is the Canada Health Act’s role in health in Alberta, and certainly some of the moves by the UCP government put into question whether the Canada Health Act is going to be fully adhered to,” said Hogan.

“I think we need to identify exactly what they mean by certain things when they talk about creating additional opportunities. What does that mean in real terms? Does that shut off access to health to Albertans? Because that’s a no-go for me,” said Hogan.

“But let’s keep the conversation going. We want to be pragmatic, but there’s got to be lines in the sand, too. And one of those lines in sand is we have a universally-accessible health-care system in Canada.”

Asked for a response to the protestors concerns about Bill 11 and the future of private health care in Alberta, Maddison McKee, press secretary for Alberta Minister of Primary and Preventative Health Services Adriana LaGrange, sent Global News an email that lashed out at Friends of Medicare, calling the organization “a political advocacy group governed by the province’s public-sector unions. They routinely spread misinformation and hyperbolic predictions, so it’s misleading to cite them as if they were impartial experts.”

“Their talking points are always the same: they compare Alberta’s common-sense changes to cherry-picked facts from other countries and a theoretical version of Canadian Medicare, rather than the real system patients experience every day,” added McKee.

McKee claims the province’s plans to allow dual practice only applies to a limited range of surgeries, does not violate the Canada Health Act, and brings the province more in line with the health-care systems in countries such as Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain and Australia.

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Alberta tables legislation to expand private health care

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