B.C. doctors ready to fight for private health care
Last updated Jun 10 2005 11:19 AM PDT CBC NewsVANCOUVER - B.C. doctors are ready to fight after the Supreme Court of Canada decided Thursday to strike down a Quebec law banning some forms of private health care ...
It may do us all well to revisit the days when Medicare started in Canada. Doctors and Insurance companies have been fighting to regain what they feel they lost beginning in 1962 in Saskatchewan and a few years later across Canada. I will in a few days review the private interests of profiteers in healthcare within Canada.
In 1962 Doctors in Saskatchewan went on strike to fight Medicare. The Saskatchewan government was taking over healthcare for all citizens and all Doctors would bill the provincial government for services to patients. The strike lasted a few weeks. In some cases doctors flew up to Canada from the United States in order to support the effort of establishing Medicare here.
It was a very nasty fight. The Doctors threatened to leave the province and some did. In the end the government of Saskatchewan stuck it out, the people of the province stayed with the government and on July 23, 1962 an agreement was reached. The deal was brokered by Lord Taylor of Harlow, a British doctor who was instrumental in Great Britain's move to government run Medicare.
The federal government established a Royal Commission on Health Services and its report was delivered by Supreme Court Justice Emmett Hall. The Hall Report recommends a joint federal/provincial system that would cover the costs of preventative health care services and hospital care for all Canadians.
The national health care system came into being in 1967. Some of the provinces did not want it. Alberta was the most opposed. Most Provinces generally liked the idea but worried about being able to provide the service.
The links above come from CBC archives, an excellent source of information on this issue. Go to The Birth of Medicare for more video and information on what occurred in the battle to gain a public healthcare system in Canada.
Also check out these links for more background;
Canada Health Act Health Canada
Commission on the Future of Health Care in Canada
Overview of the Canada Health Act Library of Parliament
No comments:
Post a Comment