Meyer Brownstone remembers the triumphs and the compromises that led to Canada's first universal health care system. Then medical journalist André Picard and health economist Colleen Flood take its pulse, and give us their prognosis.
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Tommy Douglas, known as "The Father of Medicare," shown in Ottawa with the Parliament buildings in the background on October 1983. (Canadian Press)
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Sunday Edition55:19Life Support - Medicare's mid-life crisis
Though our national health care system is top of mind for Canadians, you rarely hear politicians talk about it. We look back at the foundation of medicare, and ahead to its uncertain future.
Meyer Brownstone, one of the architects of medicare, recalls the ambitions, the battles, and the compromises behind Canada's first national health care system.
Then health policy analyst Colleen Flood and medical journalist André Picard take its pulse, and give us their prognosis.
A doctor does a strength test exercise with a cancer patient. (Credit: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette)
