Canada’s Medicare: A Story of Struggle and Triumph
April 16, 2024 - Bill C-3 - The Canada Health Act of 1984 – known as Canada’s Medicare – turns 40 this month! Forty years ago in April 1984, Parliament adopted Bill C-3 to enhance accessibility to health care by explicitly prohibiting extra billing by physicians and user fees by health care facilities and by adding ‘accessibility’ as an additional criterion to the four principles enshrined in the Medical Care Act of 1966, the predecessor and first national health care insurance law in Canada.