From Bennettcare to Medicare: The Morphing of Medicare Care Insurance in British Columbia

Introduced as a federal-provincial cost-sharing program in the 1960s, Canadian Medicare arose in the context of competing provincial models implemented by Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia. This article examines Bennettcare in British Columbia which, unlike the Saskatchewan and Alberta models, has never been analysed historically. Named after Premier W. A. C.Bennett, Bennettcare initially attempted to balance public support for a government- sponsored health insurance program with the free enterprise ideology espoused by the followers of Social Credit, the insurance industry, and the British Columbia Medical Association. However, in order to receive cost-sharing dollars from the federal government, Bennett was eventually compelled to change the design features in order to comply with the federal government’s requirements of universality and public administration, morphing Bennettcare into Saskatchewan-style Medicare.