Alberta cuts access to health care for some foreign workers, raising concerns in the Bow Valley

Javiera Sepulveda moved to Canada on a working holiday visa and would have been eligible for provincial health coverage under Alberta’s previous rules. But a quiet policy change left her without access to care.

She moved from Chile to Banff in October, where she now works as a housekeeper at a local hotel.

Based on information on Alberta Health’s website, Sepulveda was eligible for provincial coverage in early January, after working in the province for three months. She went to the Banff registry at that time to apply.

Days later, registry staff called her to say she was no longer eligible.

“I was kind of speechless because on the website they have all the requirements and I was meeting all of those,” she said.

The change means people on International Experience Canada (IEC) Type 58 work permits, including working holiday and young professional visa holders, are no longer eligible for Alberta’s public health system.

The move is prompting particular concern in the Bow Valley, where tourism businesses rely heavily on international workers to fill jobs in hotels, restaurants and other service industries.

In a statement to CBC News, Alberta’s Ministry of Primary and Preventative Health Services confirmed the change took effect Jan. 7, 2026.

The ministry says the federal government requires these workers to have private insurance, and so it says providing public health care is "considered redundant and has been discontinued."

Yin-Yuan Chen, a professor at the University of Ottawa who studies immigration and health law, says public health care and private health care insurance serve very different purposes.

"The federal government's requirements for private health insurance is not a comprehensive form of health-care coverage like provincial health insurance," he says.

Chen says there are gaps in the types of coverage provided by private insurance and public health care, “and that gap has real consequences for people."

Sepulveda is experiencing that already.

She hurt her neck weeks ago and the pain has persisted. Normally, she would go to the doctor, but she says the issue is not a medical emergency, so it is not covered through her private travel insurance.