The Canada Health Act: Protecting Public Health Care
Canada’s public health-care system is also enshrined in law.
In 1984, Parliament passed the Canada Health Act (CHA). Under the
leadership of the Canadian Nurses Association, Canada's registered
nurses advocated for such legislation to solidify the five principles
of publicly funded health care: accessibility, universality, comprehensiveness,
public administration and portability.
Before medicare, Canadians who could not afford health care were
forced to suffer alone or risk death or bankruptcy to pay exorbitantly
high health fees. If not for people like medicare's founder, Tommy
Douglas, thousands of Canadians would continue to go without the
health-care services they need and deserve.
Douglas was committed to a vision of a health-care system that
everyone could access, regardless of his or her personal wealth.
But realizing this vision was not easy. Proponents of medicare faced
opposition from many groups, including Saskatchewan doctors who
opposed physician insurance when it was introduced in 1962. Saskatchewan
led the way over the next 30 years to fully implement medicare.
- 1947 - Saskatchewan becomes the first province to offer hospital
insurance.
- 1959 – Canadian government introduces the Hospital Insurance
and Diagnostic Services Act, which shared hospital insurance costs
with participating provinces.
- 1961 – All provinces have adopted hospital health insurance.
- 1962 - Saskatchewan becomes the first province to offer provincial
medical insurance.
- 1966 – The federal government introduces the Medical Care
Act.
- 1971 – All Canadians are able to access publicly funded
services provided by physicians and in hospitals.
Although the CHA is an excellent foundation for a publicly funded
health-care system, it is not as comprehensive as it could be. Only
medically necessary hospital services, physician services and medically
or dentally required surgical services performed in a hospital are
covered by the CHA. As Canadians’ needs change, services covered
by the CHA should expand. RNAO strongly supports a phased extension
of CHA principles to cover essential services in primary health
care, home health care, long-term care, catastrophic drug coverage,
and seniors' services.
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Adapted from The
Canada Health Act: To Preserve and Protect. Referencing
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