Steps on the Road to Medicare: Why Saskatchewan Led the Way

ISBN-13: 9780773525504 / Angielski / Miękka / 2002 / 176 str.

Stuart Houston

Opis

In this title, Stuart Houston shows that Saskatchewan has led in the development of publicly funded health care since 1915. Among Saskatchewan's many firsts were the payment of municipal doctors, the development of municipal hospitals, and advances in the treatment and prevention of TB. Given this background of leadership, it was logical for North America's first social democratic government, the CCF, to go further, beginning with medical care for pensioners and widows. This was quickly followed by a comprehensive health care plan. Province-wide hospitalization insurance was put in place in January 1946. There were also significant advances in psychiatry, while cancer firsts included the first government-sponsored cancer clinics and the world's first use of calibrated betatron and cobalt-60 machines for treating cancer. Why was Saskatchewan so consistently first in health care? Houston argues that not only was the population both altruistic and ingenious with a well-developed spirit of co-operation but that its leaders. He details how from 1915 through 1962 government responded quickly to public need and suggests that it should be equally responsive today.