Dynamics without change: Continuity of Canadian health policy

This article reviews the major developments in Canadian health policy since the mid-1950s and concludes with an assessment of the relevance and impact of the recent report by the Senate standing committee on social affairs, science and technology (Kirby report) and the report of the Commission on the Future of Health Care in Canada (Romanow report). The author demonstrates that hospital and medical insurance plans and the operation of Canadian federal institutions have had conserving effects on policy and politics in the health sector and that recent reforms such as regionalization of services have consolidated rather than transformed key policy-relevant relationships. The article concludes that the principles, values and core disputes within the Canadian health policy sector in 2004 closely resemble those of fifty years ago.