Health insurance and Canadian public policy : the seven decisions that created the Canadian health insurance system and their outcomes

Medicare in Canada is not only this country's most treasured social program, it has become a defining national characteristic. Even with recent concerns over flaws in the system - long wait times, shortages of key service providers - leading to questions about the possible benefits of a two-tiered approach, the consensus is that single-payer, publicly funded health care has worked for forty years to provide Canadians with accessible, high quality services at a much lower cost than in the mainly for-profit system to the south. CONTENTS TABLES INTRODUCTION TO THE CARLETON LIBRARY SERIES EDITION PREFACE ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 1. The 1945 Health Insurance Proposals: Policymaking for Postwar Canada 2. The Saskatchewan Hospital Services Plan: The Policy Decision To Go It Alone 3. Ontario Hospital Insurance: The Decision Not To Go It Alone 4. The National Hospital Insurance Program: The Case of the Reluctant Decision 5. The Saskatchewan Medical Care Insurance Plan: The Decision to Pioneer Again 6. The National Medicare Program: Policymaking and Minority Government 7. Quebec Medicare: Policy Formulation in Conlict and Crises 8. The Outcomes, 1978-87 9. The Continuing Agenda 10. Reflections NOTES INDEX A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W In Health Insurance and Canadian Public Policy, Malcolm Taylor describes the emergence of Medicare, providing an interesting window into current health care debates. He discusses the seemingly endless series of federal-provincial exchanges and negotiations involving issues of jurisdiction, cost allocations, revenue transfers, and taxing authorities as well as efforts to accommodate opposition from various special interests that would eventually evolve into a system that provided access to adequate health care for all Canadians on the basis of need, irrespective of financial circumstances.