By Michael Rachlis, Robert G. Evans, Patrick Lewis, & Morris L. Barer
Tommy Douglas Research Institute
“The implementation of Medicare thirty years ago was a major fork in the road for Canadian health care.Ê We could have continued to drift, as we were doing, down the road taken by the United States.Ê The road has led, as some foresaw, to ‘the most expensive and… most inadequate system in the developed world…’ (Marcia Angel, former editor, New England Journal of Medicine).Ê Instead, following the trail blazed by Tommy Douglas in Saskatchewan, we established Medicare.
“Medicare has been a great success.Ê It has achieved its primary purpose – protecting people from the financial consequences of illness and injury – and has done it for considerably less than the price paid by our American neighbours.Ê At a deeper level it has become an integral component of our national identity.”
Comment from PNHP Board member Dr. Don McCanne:Ê “This report provides a precise, accurate description of the current status of the Canadian health care system with special attention given to its problems.Ê It is must reading for those of us that have to respond to criticisms of the Canadian system as we advocate for health care justice in the United States.”
The full report is available at:
http://www.tommydouglas.ca/papers/medicare.pdf