{"id":869344,"date":"2026-08-24T05:30:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T05:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/869344\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T05:30:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T05:30:14","slug":"alberta-premier-says-health-care-cards-need-renewing-every-5-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/869344\/","title":{"rendered":"Alberta premier says health care cards need renewing every 5 years"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith confirmed that the province\u2019s health cards now come with an expiry date.<\/p>\n

Saturday on her provincial call-in radio program Your Province, Your Premier, Smith addressed the concerns that some Albertans have expressed since the introduction of a combined driver\u2019s licence and health card.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are putting expiries on the health care cards, yes,\u201d Smith said. \u201cThat\u2019s actually one of the things the (provincial) auditor-general has been asking for us to do for some time, because part of the problem we have now is we\u2019ve got 500,000 more health care cards than we have people in Alberta.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the auditor-general is very concerned about the potential for fraud. You don\u2019t want somebody who\u2019s not an Alberta taxpayer going away for years and then if they need a knee replacement, coming back and getting Alberta taxpayers to pay for it. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not how the system is supposed to work, you\u2019re supposed to be a current resident, a current taxpayer to be able to get the system to pay for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Alberta Premier Danielle Smith addresses a crowd before a music concert at Spruce Meadows on Canada Day in Calgary on Wednesday, July 1, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Todd Korol Alberta Premier Danielle Smith addresses a crowd before a music concert at Spruce Meadows on Canada Day in Calgary on Wednesday, July 1, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Todd Korol <\/p>\n

Smith said the expiry date of the health care card is synchronized to the expiry date of the driver\u2019s license or — for non-drivers — the Alberta identity card.<\/p>\n

The cards expire after five years, she said, because \u201cyour face changes — sadly, I\u2019m noticing this more and more — so you have to constantly update it (your card).\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a fraud prevention measure and it\u2019s one that we should have done ages ago,\u201d Smith added. \u201cOther provinces do it . The time has come. Just make sure that you see that when your driver\u2019s license or ID is expiring, just make sure you get in there and get it done.\u201d<\/p>\n

NDP concerned<\/p>\n

Earlier this week<\/a>, Sharif Haji, the Alberta NDP\u2019s shadow minister for primary and preventative health services, said those who might find themselves without an integrated card while needing to access health care will have to pay for it.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo see a family physician, the government\u2019s own website says that if your health card expires, that means that you don\u2019t have access except emergency services,\u201d Haji said Thursday during a media conference. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you go to a medical doctor and your health card is expired, then you are not insured, basically meaning that you have to pay.\u201d<\/p>\n

Friends of Medicare also criticized the move on social media.<\/p>\n

\u201cAdding an expiry was completely unnecessary and does absolutely nothing to improve health care. Instead, like so many health care policy decisions by this government, it increases complexity and administrative burden, and creates more barriers that will disproportionately impact the already vulnerable.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone in Alberta deserves public health care, when and where they need it!\u201d<\/p>\n

With files from CTV News\u2019 Craig Ellingson<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alberta Premier Danielle Smith confirmed that the province\u2019s health cards now come with an expiry date. Saturday on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":867942,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[712,49,48,84,392],"class_list":["post-869344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-apple-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-health","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=869344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869344\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/867942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=869344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=869344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=869344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}