Canada Implements Its National Health Plan.

Canada’s national health insurance program developed piecemeal over the course of the first half of the twentieth century. Landmark acts creating the universal program were passed on May 1, 1957, when a plan to provide hospital care insurance for Canada’s citizens was adopted, and on December 19, 1966, when medical insurance was secured with the Medical Care Act, which went into effect on July 1, 1968. Although the Canadian system has its critics, some proponents suggest that United States policy makers might learn some valuable lessons from the Canadian health care program.