This Month in
Labour History

Federal Medicare Act Proclaimed Dec 19 1966

As healthcare workers every day we see the importance of Medicare. However, the system we have was something that took years to build. Originally healthcare was a business or a charity. Doctors owned small hospitals or religious groups established charities to care for the sick. Early in our history illnesses like Cholera, typhoid, smallpox devastated the population and forced governments to see they had a role to play in protecting and caring for citizens. Boards of heath were established, and health insurance (both private and public) became available to those with the means to pay. The system was failing Canadians.

Unions lobbied for government actions. In the 1960 Saskatchewan general election, the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) government of Tommy Douglas ran and was elected on a platform of implementing a universal health care plan. Conservative Prime Minister John Diefenbaker was under pressure to act and appointed Justice Emmett Hall chairman of a royal commission on health services. In a 2-volume report (1964-65), Hall recommended Medicare for all of Canada. Then following the election of Prime Minister Person, the federal government took action and on Dec 19, 1966 the Federal Medicare Act was proclaimed.

Canada’s national healthcare program is designed to ensure that every resident of Canada receives medical care and hospital treatment, the cost paid through general taxes. Responsibility for health under the Constitution is a provincial jurisdiction. However, to be eligible for federal cost sharing, the provinces must in their health policies meet criteria of accessibility, universality, comprehensiveness, portability and administration. By 1972 all the provinces and the territories had joined in Medicare.

Getting the government to funded health care was great but ever since the struggle is having it funded at a level that meets Canadian’s needs. This is an ongoing issue and struggle for the public and frontline workers. The Canadian Medical Association says Medicare is underfunded resulting in overcrowded hospitals, outdated equipment and waiting lists of patients requiring nonurgent surgery. Research by the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU/CUPE) indicates the latest data on hospital funding, bed capacity, staffing levels, admission times, and other metrics, show a continuing declining level of service. Union members continue to lobby and call for proper funding for Medicare because we know it is needed by our communities. We won’t let governments given up on the hospital crisis and try and take us back to a system before 1966.

https://www.healthcoalition.ca/ https://www.healthcoalition.ca/fr/

https://ochu.on.ca/2024/09/12/no-respite-for-ontario-patients-new-report-says-five-times-more-hospital-beds-needed-than-planned-by-ford-government-3/