Rebuild Our Healthcare

protect
rebuild
public
healthcare

Stop two-tier healthcare

By passing Bill 11, the government has opened the door to American-style, two-tier healthcare in Alberta, where your wallet decides how long you wait. This is the biggest threat to public healthcare we’ve ever faced.

Alberta's Healthcare System
is Being Intentionally Dismantled

On December 18, 2025, Bill 11 passed through the legislature, making Alberta the first province in Canada to legislate two-tier healthcare. Doctors will soon be able to work in the public and private systems at the same time - choosing which patients to bill out of pocket! Those with money jump the queue. Everyone else waits longer. This didn't happen by accident. It's the result of years of chaos: a restructured AHS, ignored healthcare workers, and public dollars funneled to failed for-profit experiments. This is now the final step on the road to two-tier American-style health care.

Record-high
wait times

Albertans are waiting longer for vital care, risking worsening conditions and delayed treatments.

Staffing
shortages

Government chaos and underfunding are driving healthcare professionals away, resulting in fewer of them available to provide care.

Reduced
ER services

Because of under funding and short staffing, ERs are experiencing reduced services, temporary closures and huge wait times.

Overcrowded
waiting rooms.

This is now the norm, creating unsafe and undignified treatment for patients and demoralizing staff. This is a policy failure, not an inevitability.

Family
doctor shortage

Hundreds of thousands are without a family doctor. Preventive care is collapsing, and manageable conditions are turning into emergencies.

Facility
closures

Hospital and clinic closures force families to drive for hours or go without care—worsening inequities, especially in rural and Indigenous communities.

Pushing
privatization

Bill 11 has made it legal for doctors to charge you privately for the same care Medicare should already cover. Pay up, or wait longer. That's two-tier health care.

Mental
health gaps

Chronic underfunding has left mental health supports threadbare. People are falling through the cracks and turning up in ERs that can’t keep up.

Staffing Shortages

"I went to the hospital with severe pain, but staffing shortages meant endless waiting. Nurses were exhausted, doctors overwhelmed. I felt forgotten, and worried my condition would worsen before help arrived."

Caleb Smith

Calgary

Due to chronic underfunding, Alberta’s healthcare workers are leaving the system in alarming numbers.

The 2024 budget revealed that the failed privatization of our lab services cost Albertans at least $97 million, without delivering the promised cost savings or services needed.

Following privatization, Alberta saw significant delays and disruptions to our lab services, and the increased use of private, for-profit surgical centres has meant we’ve done fewer surgeries in our hospitals this year than last year.

Government funding cuts and a push toward privatization are delaying surgeries and leaving Albertans waiting longer for essential procedures.

Much of our challenges in healthcare can be solved by spending our public dollars on a public system.

Step one: repeal Bill 11 and shut the door on two-tier care. Step two: stop the chaos, stabilize public hospitals, and listen to the healthcare workers who've been telling this government the truth all along. The fixes are known. The question is whether the government will use them, or whether Albertans will have to force the issue.

Stop the chaos

Sweeping restructuring from this government causes chaos and erodes trust in public care. It's time for it to end and to stabilize healthcare.

Stabilize now

Surge funding to reopen ER hours, expand inpatient beds, and clear surgical backlogs in public hospitals.

Spend public dollars on public care

Repeal Bill 11. End subsidies to for-profit operators. Re-invest every public dollar in public hospitals, community clinics, and public labs.

Restore affordability

Ban creeping extra billing and private fees that undermine universality and block people from care.

Support rural communities

Reopen and stabilize rural ERs, expand urgent care, and grow home and continuing care to free up hospital beds.

Deliver mental health care

We can avoid ER backlogs by investing in evidence-based mental health and addiction services across the province.

Recruit and retain

Ensure adequate staffing and access by implementing a province‑wide workforce plan, including a focus on rural access.

Respect the experts

Re-engage healthcare workers by listening to their expertise about healthcare policy and fostering a stable working environment.

Email your MLA

Tell your MLA: repeal Bill 11. Alberta didn’t vote for two-tier healthcare, and we won’t accept it. Thousands have already sent a message, add your name today.

Share your Story

Have you had a bad experience with Alberta’s health care system? Help us shine a light on the real impacts these cuts have on every day people by sharing your story.

Volunteer

Volunteers are the heart of Friends of Medicare — neighbours, workers, and community members coming together to stand up for public healthcare. Whether you can lend a hand at a rally, help with outreach, or share your skills behind the scenes, your contribution matters. This movement is built by everyday people who care — and together, we’re fighting to keep healthcare public, accessible, and strong for everyone.

Find a Local Chapter

Our regional chapters are the backbone of this movement. By organizing locally, these chapters make it possible for people across Alberta to raise their voices and act together in defence of public healthcare. There’s a chapter close by where you can plug in, contribute, and take part in shaping the future of health policy.

Explore your local chapter. Reach out, learn how you can get involved, and help build a stronger, people-powered defence for public healthcare—wherever you are in Alberta.

Join Friends of Medicare

When you become a member of Friends of Medicare, you’re stepping into a movement. Your membership gives you a stake and a voice in shaping the defence and growth of public healthcare in Alberta. It means you join a community of people who believe that medical care should be guided by need, not profit.

Join thousands of Albertans saying NO to paying out of pocket, and NO to American-style two-tier care.

ER patients left before completing treatment in 2024.

Alberta's Healthcare Systemis Being Intentionally Dismantled

Record-highwait times

Staffing shortages

Reduced ER services

Overcrowdedwaiting rooms.

Family doctor shortage

Facility closures

Pushingprivatization

Mental health gaps

Real Voices, Real Struggles, Shared Stories

Staffing Shortages

Caleb Smith

Reduced ER Services

Jessica Gibbins

Family Doctor Shortage

Colin Roberts

The evidence is clear. Privatization is not the answer. Here's the proof.

Driving Away Professionals

Nurses reported burnout

Doctors plan to leave

FailedExperiments

ServiceDelays

DividedResources

Patients received timely surgery

It's not too late.Repeal Bill 11. Rebuild public healthcare.