The Hospitalization Plan

St. Andrews Pioneers Public Hospitalization Plan in 1936.

In the period 1931-1936 residents of St. Andrews had contracted medical bills of over $6,000.00 ($93,500.00 in 2013 dollars)of which $1,500.00 was unpaid. Many members of the community were not seeking adequate health care because of their inability to pay.

The St. Andrews Hospitalization Plan began about 1931 with parish priest Fr. John R. MacDonald; Co-op store manager, Angus H. MacPherson; Mother Ignatius, (formerly Mary Catherine Floyd of Springfield) Superior of The Sisters of St. Martha; Angus Bernard MacDonald, assistant director of St. F. X. Extension Department; and R. J. MacSween, Director of Co-Operatives for Nova Scotia.

It was through the St. Andrews Co-Operative Store in 1936 that Group Hospitalization was first started in Nova Scotia. A contract was drawn with the St. Andrews Co-Operative agreeing to pay the amount of $375.00 in quarterly installments to the hospital. St. Martha`s Hospital agreed to provide in return, five weeks of free ward service, ordinary medicine, 50% private or semi-private room reduction, free laboratory service, 50% reduction in X-Ray, and operating room costs for all shareholders, and the members of their families.

This plan provided the foundation for the setting up in 1943 of the Blue Cross Hospitalization plan for the Maritimes.