Health Care in Canada - 1945

Charlie Leech was a dairy farmer who lived near Newboro, Ontario in 1945.  He worked hard to support his family, milking more than 20 cows twice a day, growing corn, haying and doing all the other chores on a family farm.  In addition that spring, his mother had died and he had been the one to take care of all the matters of the estate.  Worn down perhaps, he developed a bad cough and the periodic chest pain he experienced became more severe. On May 19, 1945, he went to visit the family's doctor in nearby Westport, Ontario.

This was in the days before Canada had a "free" "Health Care" system so Charlie had to pay $3.00 for the office visit.  Dr. Goodfellow was troubled by the increasing chest pain and recommended Charlie see the best cardiologist in the region, Dr. W. Ford Connell at the Kingston General. So, on June 13, 1945, Charlie drove in to Kingston and met with the well regarded specialist.  Dr. Connell did an examination, talked to Charlie about his family, extended his condolences regarding Charlie's mother, and sent Charlie down stairs for a chest x-ray.  That cough was a miserable one too.  Charlie paid $6.00 for the x-ray.



Back he went to Dr. Connell who wrote a prescription for three medications to deal with both the cough and the chest pain. 



 Charlie thanked Dr. Connell, and, because he liked to pay promptly, settled the bill for his visit directly with Dr. Connell.

On his way home Charlie picked up his medications.  Their total cost was $1.65.  Now it is common to quote prices from "the old days" without adjusting them to reflect cost of living and purchasing power in the time period they took place.  Charlie was a dairy farmer so one comparison would be that the retail price of milk at the time was about 60 cents a gallon.  The price of milk in 2011 is approximately 7 times what it was in 1945.  Therefore, the total cost to Charlie of his medical adventure had been $20.65 or about $150.00 in current funds.  In return, Charlie had seen (promptly and on time) a family doctor who actually knew his family, been referred in less than one month to the top cardiologist in the area, had had a x-ray and paid for three medications.

     Charlie farmed for another 20 years.  His cough was never "cured" but that was because he was a heavy smoker.  That didn't help the heart either.  Less than two years after he retired, he succumbed to a heart attack, aged 70.  Charlie Leech was my father-in-law and coming across these documents in some old family papers caused me to reflect that perhaps health care was not so bad, back in the day.