History Post-confederation (1867-)
Tommy Douglas and the Quest for Medicare in Canada
- Publisher
- University of Toronto Press
- Initial publish date
- Jan 2025
- Category
- Post-Confederation (1867-), Health Care Issues, History & Theory
-
Hardback
- ISBN
- 9781487560447
- Publish Date
- Jan 2025
- List Price
- $120.00
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9781487560430
- Publish Date
- Jan 2025
- List Price
- $49.95
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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.
About the author
Gregory P. Marchildon is a Canada Research Chair in Public Policy and Economic History at the Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, University of Regina. He was executive director of the Royal Commission on the Future of Health Care in Canada (the Romanow Commission). His most recent books include Health Systems in Transition: Canada (2013) and Nunavut: A Health System Profile (2013).
Other titles by
Health Systems in Transition: Canada, Third Edition
Profits and Politics
Beaverbrook and the Gilded Age of Canadian Finance
Universality and Social Policy in Canada
Federalism and Decentralization in Health Care
A Decision Space Approach
Fiscal Federalism and Equalization Policy in Canada
Political and Economic Dimensions
Vulnerability and Adaptation to Drought on the Canadian Prairies
Health Systems in Transition
Canada, Second Edition
Making Medicare
New Perspectives on the History of Medicare in Canada
Health Systems in Transition
Canada, Second Edition
The Romanow Papers
Volumes 1-3