When President Barack Obama addressed a joint session of Congress last week in a desperate attempt to push his healthcare agenda through, he described Canada’s single payer healthcare as too much of a radical shift from the current American medical system.
Gee Barry, do you think that when the government of Canada first became involved in the medical care of its citizens it was by way of a single payer system? Okay you probably do but the reality is that Canada’s present single payer healthcare was not designed or created – it evolved over time into what it is today.
Tommy Douglas, known as the father of Canadian medicare, was elected premier of the province of Saskatchewan in 1944. With his election he became the first socialist to be elected to lead a government in North America. Saskatchewan at that time was largely rural; populated by farmers who worked from sunup to sundown, seven days a week. They had valuable farmland but little cash and a devastating medical condition or a lengthy hospital stay could completely wipe them out. So in 1947, Saskatchewan introduced a government-run insurance scheme that covered catastrophic medical events that most people could not be expected to easily pay for. The insurance plan worked much the same way as automobile insurance functions. Although the poor were given complete medical coverage, everyone else paid their own medical bills for everything other than for hospitalization. It was a true insurance scheme, not an entitlement, albeit insurance that was run by the government.
In 1957, the federal government passed the Hospital Insurance and Diagnostic Services Act. This legislation provided all Canadians with free hospitalization and diagnostic tests. All other medical services had to be purchased on the open market and doctors working outside of a hospital setting were free to set their own fees for their services.
Although private insurance companies and the medical establishment were opposed to the legislation, it was generally supported by Canadians who understood that it would be paid for through their taxes. Taxes in those days were a lot lower than they are now; revenues from taxation paid for core government services such as building roads and defense. Tax money was not used to fund every special interest group that the government of the day favored. And we were years away from spending hardworking peoples’ money to “save the planet”. Canadians generally accepted higher taxes to fund expensive hospitalization in the same way they agreed with spending money on public education.
In 1966, the Medical Care Act became law which finally provided for universal health coverage. A funding formula between the federal government and the provinces was put into place that penalized provinces if they imposed user fees or allowed doctors to extra bill their patients. But this formula was changed in 1977 that effectively removed these penalties. With inflation that was rampant during the late 1970s, doctors routinely extra billed their patients and this practice led to a bunch of government commissions and studies. What followed was the passage of the Canada Health Care Act on April 1, 1984 that is still in effect. The Canada Health Care Act banned extra billing and user fees for any service that the province where the medical care took place in deemed to be “medically necessary”. Canada is now one of only three countries in the world (Cuba and North Korea are the other two) where it is illegal for doctors to charge their patients money for their services. Among the many rights that Canadians enjoy is the ability to eat a pizza with double # sausage and hot peppers, wash it down with a case of beer and then go to a doctor the next day because they’re not feeling well – for free.
Barack Obama is deluding the American people by suggesting that the healthcare plan that he wants to see in place will simply remain stagnant. If a public option is introduced it will be declared a success by the government and the fawning media whether that is the case or not. And this “success” will spur the growth of public sector health care until the private sector is eventually eased out.
Canada’s healthcare system may indeed be too radical for the United States – but it certainly didn’t start out that way.
When President Barack Obama addressed a joint session of Congress last week in a desperate attempt to push his healthcare agenda through, he described Canada’s single payer healthcare as too much of a radical shift from the current American medical system.
Gee Barry, do you think that when the government of Canada first became involved in the medical care of its citizens it was by way of a single payer system? Okay you probably do but the reality is that Canada’s present single payer healthcare was not designed or created – it evolved over time into what it is today.
