Full Description
How and why was universal health coverage implemented so early in a poverty-stricken province in Canada? Why was its design so faithfully replicated in the national standards that ultimately shaped Medicare across the rest of Canada?
Seeking to answer these questions, Tommy Douglas and the Quest for Medicare in Canada explores the history of universal health care through the life of Canadian politician Tommy Douglas, identifying the pivotal moments and decisions that led to the establishment of Medicare in Canada.
The book traces the origins of Medicare back to the 1930s Depression and its devastating impact on the Prairie populations. Marchildon examines how Tommy Douglas and a new generation of reformers, radicalized by the Depression, prioritized socialized health care. The book reveals how, as the provincial party leader, Douglas leveraged support from both local and external allies to rapidly implement universal hospital insurance and lay the groundwork for a new health system.
Despite strong opposition from physician and business lobbies, Douglas continued to pressure the government for federal cost-sharing of universal health coverage. Drawing on archival sources including speeches, television broadcasts, and cabinet documents, Tommy Douglas and the Quest for Medicare in Canada illuminates how Douglas's vision, leadership, and coalition-building among unions were crucial to the successful establishment of Medicare in Canada.
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Medicare: The Agony and the Ecstasy
2. The Making of a Preacher-Politician
3. Federal Member of Parliament, 1935-1944
4. Sigerist, Sheps, and Socialism
5. Rise and Fall of the Green Book Proposals
6. Hospitalization in Saskatchewan
7. National Health Grants and New Frontiers
8. Next Year Country
9. National Influence, 1948-1958
10. Setting the Political Agenda Once More
11. The Thompson Committee and the New Party
12. Repudiation
13. Doctors' Strike and the Cost of Peace
14. The Hall Commission and the Leftward Tilt of Canadian Politics
15. National Medicare
16. Defender of Medicare
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
