On January 1, 1947, hospital care became free at the point of service for every resident of Saskatchewan. The system worked. Partly because many new doctors were moving to the province, partly because postwar hunger for Saskatchewan’s wheat crop helped fill the provincial treasury, there proved to be enough capacity and money to meet the soaring increase in medical demand. Government-funded medicine was so popular that Tommy Douglas, the head of a radical minority party, remained premier through five elections. Beyond its success in Saskatchewan, the Douglas hospital insurance plan had a
...more
