Fundamental to the stories told in Medicare’s Histories is the essential role played by communities—of activists, critics, health professionals, First Nations, patients, families, and survivors—in driving demands for health reform, in identifying particular omissions and inequities exacerbated or even created by medicare, and in responding to the realities of medicare for those who work in and rely on it. Contributors to this volume show how medicare has been shaped by politics (in the broadest sense of that word), identities, professional organizations, and social movements in Canada and abroad.
As COVID lays bare social inequities and the inadequacies of health care delivery and public health, this book shows what was excluded and what was—and is—possible in health care.
Esyllt W. Jones is a history professor at University of Manitoba and is the author of the award-winning Influenza 1918: Death, Disease and Struggle in Winnipeg.
James Hanley is a Professor of History at the University of Winnipeg.
Delia Gavrus is an Associate Professor in the Department of History at the University of Winnipeg.