The act establishes the Canadian system of accessible or "universal" healthcare, which is funded with federal dollars. It ensures: “that all eligible residents of Canada have reasonable access to insured health services on a prepaid basis, without direct charges at the point of service for such services” (Government of Canada, n.d.).

Extra-billing is also banned, which means that practitioners cannot provide additional private services for extra costs, but must instead conform to the services provided through the healthcare system.