NDP Government Bill 1 Defends Albertans From American-Style Health Care – Passes First Reading

“This act will strengthen our ability to defend Albertans from American-style health care creeping into our province,” Alberta Premier Rachel Notley at a Monday morning news conference

This past Monday, the Alberta government launched its spring session by introducing a bill that defines their commitment to a single-tier public health care system that provides care based on need, not the ability to pay.

Bill 1, titled An Act to Protect Public Health Care, which passed the first reading, prohibits two-tier health-care delivery, extra billing, queue-jumping and any form of private payment for insured services.

If the bill becomes law clinics would no longer be allowed to charge membership fees, and doctors, dentists who are paid through the public system would not be allowed to charge patients for services.

Fines would range from $10,000 for a first offence and $20,000 for each subsequent offence.