Shawn Whatley: Alberta right to challenge sacred rules of medicare

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Alberta patients no longer have to wait for MRI, CT scans, ultrasounds, and X-rays, if they are willing to pay for the tests themselves. Patients also no longer need a referral to access scanning.

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In reality, critics seem to care most about protecting the medicare system, not improving patient care itself. They make hypothetical arguments and reference isolated cases of poorly designed health care.

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Alberta has forced a debate: do we care most about patient care or medicare?

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Certainly, no one copies Canadian health care anymore. We have the last government monopoly single-payer system that eschews private medical insurance, a holdout in a crowd of better options. Indeed, given the critics’ warnings, it’s a wonder that the 30 other high-income universal healthcare systems in the world function at all. Somehow, they have minimal wait times, universal care, lower costs and cover medical appliances and medications, not just medical services.

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These critics argue Alberta will divert doctors, nurses and technicians to work in the private sector, increasing wait times in the public system. They warn that patient self-referral will create false positive tests, adding work for the public system to sort out. They believe that only physicians and nurse practitioners should order tests; patients cannot decide on their own. They argue that Alberta should instead improve system efficiency by training more staff, expanding digital solutions, purchasing more medical equipment and adopting central referral systems.

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Finally, critics claim that self-referral and self-pay normalize direct access, which could push Canada toward a two-tier U.S.-style approach to health care.

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What’s really going on?

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Certainly, Canada faces healthcare staffing challenges. But the idea that medical professionals are abandoning Canada for private-pay systems is a bait and switch. Staff shortages often exist because the strain of working within the current medicare system drives professionals out of practice. For instance, a 2025 study found that nearly 40 per cent of all Canadian nurses under 35 quit the profession within five years of graduation citing complaints including involuntary overtime, high stress and working conditions.

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When Canadian medical professionals do leave for the U.S. or beyond, it is often not by choice. For instance, The Globe and Mail reported in 2019 that nearly one in five specialist doctors couldn’t find full-time work in Canada after graduation: “Those who want to practice can’t get their foot in the door,” said a senior official with the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.