Public Health Care is Under Attack from American-style Privatization Like Never Before

By Erika Shaker

June 24^th, 2026

BURLINGTON, ON

Right now, public health care is under attack from American-style privatization like never before.

When I think about what makes Canada special, one of the first things that comes to mind is our universal public health care.

Public health care is what makes us who we are. It’s the clearest expression of the shared belief that we all do better when we take care of each other.

Alberta has become the first province in Canada to allow two-tier health care by letting doctors work both in the public system and a private-pay market. This policy change violates the Canada Health Act but the federal government has done nothing about it, so far.

And Alberta isn’t alone. Creeping privatization is happening across the country—just more quietly. More and more, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) is a vital group holding governments of all political stripes to account. Our experts break down complex policy into clear facts that help people act and choose a different—a better—path. And we can only do this work because of support from driven, passionate people like you.

Erika Shaker: “Here’s the truth: it only takes one province to rip apart our social contract on public health care. No one voted for this.”

I’m not arguing that our current public health care system is perfect. Emergency rooms are overcrowded. Wait times are growing. Rural emergency wards are closing their doors. People struggle to find a family doctor. All of these challenges have solutions. But these solutions are not found in emulating a privatized model.

Here’s the truth: it only takes one province to rip apart our social contract on public health care. No one voted for this. No premier campaigned on privatizing Medicare. But it’s happening anyway—by stealth, in the shadows, while we’re distracted.

These policies open the door for U.S. control over Canada’s public health care system, starting with U.S. private insurance companies. The insurance industry is already celebrating. U.S. investors are watching Alberta’s experiment to see if Canada will open the doors to the kind of for-profit health care that has left millions of Americans bankrupt and uninsured.

That’s why the CCPA has created a new health policy desk, led by Senior Researcher Andrew Longhurst. Perhaps you’ve seen him in the media or read about Andrew’s research online or in print, talking about his solutions to the challenges facing our cherished system. Our research gives health care workers, unions, and community organizations the tools they need to fight back. It gives journalists the facts they need to tell the accurate story. It gives you the information you need to hold your government accountable.

Public health care isn’t just policy. It’s who we are. We can’t let this legacy slip away. Not now. Not when we’re trying to assert our independence and show the world what we stand for—for everyone who calls Canada home.

When you support the CCPA, you’re funding the work that protects health care for everyone.

Together, we can keep American-style health care out of Canada and protect the public system we all rely on.

Erika Shaker is Director of the National Office.

The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives is looking for financial support to cover the costs of the work they are doing to tell the accurate story.

You can support this initiative by clicking HERE