UCP government to allow Albertans to privately pay for medical tests, screenings
Published 5:24 pm Wednesday, October 22, 2025
Alberta’s UCP government plans to allow Albertans to privately purchase any diagnostic screening and testing services they want to reduce wait times for diagnostic imaging and preventative screening.
The government said legislative reforms to expand access to elective testing, screening and other diagnostic services will attract new investment to increase capacity, shorten wait times and reduce pressure on the public health system.
The plan includes allowing health professionals and medical organizations to offer the services privately and enable supplemental health benefits plans to insure them.
The government said all physician-recommended tests will continue to be fully covered and prioritized in all facilities, public or private, across the province. If a privately purchased test reveals a significant or critical condition, the out-of-pocket cost will be reimbursed, so no Albertan pays for a medically necessary test.
“By giving Albertans more choice to access elective testing, screening and other diagnostic services, we are ushering in an innovative, new era of preventative health care in the province. Expanding access to preventative health services will strengthen Alberta’s public health care system, ensuring improved outcomes and greater benefits for all Albertans across the province,” said Primary and Preventative Health Services Minister Adriana LaGrange.
But Friends of Medicare said introducing American-style health care is wrong and won’t help. The government’s attempted privatization of Alberta’s community medical laboratories resulted in weeks-long waits for basic diagnostic lab work, ultimately resulting in the service being returned to the public health system at a price tag of more than $97 million.
“To think that permitting Albertans with unaddressed health needs and money to spare to access potentially unnecessary diagnostic tests will somehow reduce our wait times is completely ludicrous,” said Chris Gallaway, executive director of Friends of Medicare.
“Every time this government announces another new privatization scheme they claim it will save money and increase access to care. But Albertans have seen over and over that these schemes never actually pan out as promised, and instead reduce public capacity, worsen wait times for patients, and ultimately cost us more.”
Friends of Medicare said existing privatization of diagnostic services like MRI and CT imaging has already put pressure on publicly delivered services, contributing to current wait times.
A 2022 Auditor General report made recommendations to improve diagnostic services by utilizing unused public capacity and organizing access more effectively, but those have been ultimately ignored by two successive UCP governments, which have instead opted to double down on privatization.
“This government has been repeatedly called on to improve health care access by fixing short-staffing, by making family doctors available to the hundreds of thousands of Albertans who don’t have one, by getting the pressure off of our exhausted hospitals. Instead, all they have to offer is more and more privatization, and more and more out-of-pocket health care costs for families who are already struggling with affordability in Alberta.”
According to the most recent Canada Health Act Annual Report, Alberta missed out on more than $13 million in federal health transfers under the Diagnostic Services Policy as a result of patient charges for medically necessary diagnostic services in 2023 and 2024.
“We know that Alberta is already failing to ensure that patients aren’t being illegally billed for diagnostic services. And at the same time, this government has continuously made moves to charge Albertans more for the health care they need,” said Gallaway.
Sarah Hoffman, Alberta’s New Democrat Shadow Minister for Hospital and Surgical Health Facilities, said the UCP government’s solution to fix the health care system with private-pay options creates a two-tier system based on those who can pay, pulls resources away from the public health care system.
“It creates longer wait times for those that need care and poorer health outcomes,” Hoffman said.
The government said engagement with stakeholders on the proposed changes will be conducted to help inform what legislative and policy changes might be needed for increased access to preventative screening options.
link