Alberta Health Insurance Act

The United Farmers of Alberta (UFA) government passed the Alberta Health Insurance Act in March 1935. For an annual cost of $14.50 per person, the plan envisaged employed workers contributing $2.01 a month and their employers 81 cents, while other income earners paid the full $2.82 required to cover not only contributors but also the indigent. The actual breakdown of costs for the plan was five-ninths from the employee, two-ninths from the employer and two-ninths from the provincial government. The plan was designed to cover preventive and curative services including medical services, hospitalization, drugs, nursing care and dental care. But the UFA government decided that demonstration areas — one urban, one rural — were needed prior to full implementation, and these were not in place prior to the UFA’s defeat by the Social Credit Party. Like the legislation subsequently passed in British Columbia, the Alberta Health Insurance Act reflected provincial needs and prompted calls for national standards and national funding.