Editing Saskatchewan (section)

== Healthcare ==
[[File:Royal University Hospital.jpg|thumb|The [[Royal University Hospital]] is one of [[List of hospitals in Saskatchewan|several hospitals operating in Saskatchewan]].]]
Saskatchewan's [[Ministry of Health (Saskatchewan)|Ministry of Health]] is responsible for policy direction, sets and monitors standards, and provides funding for regional health authorities and provincial health services. Saskatchewan's health system is a [[single payer health care|single-payer system]]. Medical practitioners in Saskatchewan are independent contractors. They remit their accounts to the publicly funded Saskatchewan Medical Care Insurance Plan, which pays the accounts. Patients do not pay anything to their doctors or hospitals for medical care.<ref>{{cite web |title=How Saskatchewan Health Pays Your Bill – Health – Government of Saskatchewan |url=http://www.health.gov.sk.ca/benefits-bill-payment |website=health.gov.sk |publisher=Health.gov.sk.ca |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071101104417/http://www.health.gov.sk.ca/benefits-bill-payment |archive-date=November 1, 2007 |access-date=February 23, 2011 }}</ref>

In 1944, the [[Co-operative Commonwealth Federation]] (CCF), a left-wing agrarian and labour party, won the provincial election in Saskatchewan and formed the first socialist government in North American history. Repeatedly re-elected, the CCF campaigned in the early 1960s on the theme of [[universal health coverage]] and, after winning the election again, implemented it, the first in Canada. However, it was fiercely opposed by the province's doctors' union, which went on a massive strike the day the new system came into effect. Supported by the Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce, most newspapers and the right-wing Keep Our Doctors movement, the doctors' union ran an effective communications campaign portraying the universal health care system as a communist scheme that would spread disease. The strike, which had become very unpopular because of the outrageous rhetoric of some of its leaders (one of them had called for bloodshed), finally ended after a few weeks, and universal health coverage was adopted by the whole country five years later.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://mondediplo.com/2020/08/02populism-expertise |title=It's the healthcare system, stupid |date=August 2020 |access-date=August 20, 2022 |archive-date=August 20, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220820215853/https://mondediplo.com/2020/08/02populism-expertise |url-status=live }}</ref>