Apparently, Canadians were guaranteed access to vital medical services regardless of status in living. With the rising costs of health care, plus low fees to medical specialists and practitioner, many doctors opted out of the system and billed patients themselves. By the late 1970s and early 1980s there were calls to ban such extra billing and user fees – some Canadians could hardly find “opted-in” providers.
(Irvine, B. et al, 2005, Page 1) In response to the pleas of its Health Care members, the Canadian Health Act of 1984 was drafted and denies federal support to provinces that allow extra-billing within their insurance schemes and effectively forbids private or opted-out practitioners from billing beyond provincially man-dated fee schedules.
(Ibid) This Act strengthens the basic values to which MEDICARE revolves: comprehensiveness (provincial government provides funding and resources to necessary hospital and physician services), universality (100 per cent of provincial residents are entitled to the plan), accessibility (reasonable access to services, not impeded by user charges or extra billing), portability (protection for Canadians traveling outside of their home province), and public administration (provinces must administer and operate health plan on a non-profit basis).