If you think our fight for affordable universal health care with a public option is difficult, you should know something about what Canada went through. Or, more accurately, Saskatchewan, the first province to implement what has become known as the Canadian Health Care system. Or, as they call it, Medicare. For all.
In Saskatchewan, instead of having a large number of doctors in favor of such a plan, about 90% of the doctors actually went on strike in protest. A bitter strike that lasted from July 1, 1962 to July 23, 1962.
And in the end the plan started by Tommy Douglas and implemented by his successor Woodrow Lloyd, who faced tremendous pressure to withdraw the plan, was popularly adopted, with some provincial adpatations, over the whole of Canada within ten years.
And there lie a couple of things I think we can learn.