The Hoadley Commission (1932–34) and Health Insurance in Alberta

The role of Albertans in the evolution of health insurance in Canada, and particularly the Hoadley Commission, has been overlooked and assumed to be non-contributory. The Commission proposed for the first time that all citizens be insured, and the provincial government would pay for those who could not afford the premiums. The proposed plan was to be centrally administrated by a government-appointed commission. The Commission’s principles were supported by the AMA/CPSA in 1932 and incorporated into the CMA’s health insurance plan between 1934 and 1935. The proposal stimulated the first Blue Cross plan in Canada in Edmonton in 1934. It was supported by the Social Credit government, who in 1942 re-passed the UFA Health Insurance Act of 1935. The Act meshed perfectly with the federal Heagerty Advisory Committee proposal of 1943.