The Alberta government is expected to reveal details Monday of changes to preventative health testing, days after three Orders in Council implementing the policy were approved. Premier Danielle Smith and Primary and Preventative Health Services Minister Justin Wright are scheduled to hold a news conference at 12:30 p.m. at Calgary’s McDougall Centre. The government has not publicly disclosed the details of the announcement, but a media advisory issued Sunday said only that Smith and Wright would announce changes intended to provide Albertans with “more choice” and “earlier detection.” The announcement follows the publication last week of three Orders in Council approved by cabinet on July 22 to implement portions of Bill 29, the Health Statutes Amendment Act, 2026. ‘Betrayal of Albertans’ Friends of Medicare responded by accusing the government of taking another step toward two-tier health care. The organization said the government had “quietly issued Orders in Council which reclassified all preventive health testing services as non-insured extended health services.” “The premier ran last election on a ‘Public Health Guarantee,’ repeatedly promising that her government would not delist any medical procedures from public funding and that no Albertans would have to pay out of pocket to access care,” executive director Chris Gallaway said in a statement. “Yet here we are. What a betrayal of Albertans who took the premier at her word in the last election.” Friends of Medicare also argued that allowing preferential paid access to diagnostic testing could draw health-care workers and other resources away from the public system and increase wait times for patients who cannot afford to pay. Bill 29 created the legislative framework allowing Albertans to purchase certain preventative diagnostic and screening tests from approved providers without first obtaining a referral from a physician. The government has said the changes are intended to improve early detection, expand patient choice and reduce pressure on family physicians and the public health-care system. One of the Orders in Council proclaims key provisions of Bill 29 into force effective July 31. Another amends the Alberta Health Care Insurance Regulation by creating a new category called “preventative health testing services” and stating those services “are not insured health services” under the Alberta Health Care Insurance Act. It also provides that preventative health testing services delivered under a forthcoming Preventative Health Testing Services Benefits Regulation are considered extended health services. A third regulation confirms that the medical procedures involved remain restricted activities that must continue to be performed by authorized regulated health professionals. The government has not yet publicly released the Preventative Health Testing Services Benefits Regulation, which is expected to identify which tests will fall under the new framework. The legal changes have also raised questions expected to be answered at Monday’s news conference, chief among them whether the province has changed what is publicly insured. While the regulation states preventative health testing services are “not insured health services,” it is not clear from the published documents whether tests designated under the new framework would continue to be publicly funded when ordered by a physician because they are medically necessary, or whether the designation applies only when Albertans choose to purchase preventative tests directly without a referral.
