In 2023, a Calgary clinic informed patients they would be moving to a costly membership system to access their primary care. Health Canada declared the move a violation of the Canada Health Act, and Albertans were outraged. But while the clinic ultimately backed down on the proposal following the outcry, we have seen no action to protect patients from existing or future clinics attempting to charge us money to access our health care. Worse, the UCP government voted against legislation that would have finally banned access fees and members-only medicine in Alberta.

Two years later, the audit of 13 private membership clinics in Alberta was finally released, finding that "physicians in those clinics saw substantially fewer patients than other doctors, and members seemed to get longer and more comprehensive appointments than non-members." The report was not able to rule out the possibility that clinics are extra-billing for insured services.

People in Alberta are increasingly worried about their access to crucial primary health care services—an estimated 650,000 people don't have a family doctor. But while Premier Smith ran on a much-touted ‘Public Health Guarantee’, and repeatedly promised that no Albertan would ever have to pay to visit a family doctor, she’s done nothing to prevent it from happening. Instead we've also seen her support ideas that would require Albertans to pay for health care out of pocket, including fees to access a family doctor or surgery deductibles, and has proposed other concerning policies like health spending accounts. 

It's clear: now more than ever, we need to take action to protect our public health care!

Will you sign on to tell all MLAs to support banning access fees?