<P> Under this new arrangement, cost sharing was no more . Provinces / territories now had more flexibility, as long as the federal terms and conditions continued to be met . The federal government had more predictability . Rather than an open - ended commitment, EPF established a per capita entitlement (not adjusted for age - sex or other demographic factors) which would be indexed to inflation . This money would go into provincial general revenues . To simplify a complex formula, the EPF entitlement could be seen as consisting of two components . Part of the funds were in the form of "tax transfers" whereby "the federal government agreed with provincial and territorial governments to reduce its personal and corporate income tax rates, thus allowing them to raise their tax rates by the same amount . As a result, revenue that would have flowed to the federal government began to flow directly to provincial and territorial governments ." This transfer could not be reversed by subsequent governments, meaning that the federal government had no fiscal leverage over this component of the transfer . (Indeed, there has been an ongoing controversy as to whether this component should even be considered part of the federal contribution .) The remainder of the entitlement was in the form of cash grants . Although the per capita amount was intended to be escalated to inflation, subsequently, the federal government tried to deal with its fiscal position by unilaterally first reducing and then freezing the inflation escalator . As the cash portion threatened to disappear, in 1996, the federal government combined the EPF transfers with another cost - shared program, the Canada Assistance Plan (CAP), to form the Canada Health and Social Transfer (CHST). This enabled the federal government to both cut the total transfers (by approximately the amount in the CAP) while retaining a' cash floor' on the total amount . In 2004, these transfers were split into the Canada Health Transfer (CHT) and the Canada Social Transfer . The federal Department of Finance publishes brief guides to these programs . Nonetheless, many argue that there has been no explicit federal transfer for health care since 1977, since these programs are no longer tied to specific spending . </P> <P> The second component of the federal plan, specification of the terms and conditions which provincial / territorial insurance plans must meet, continued to be those established in HIDS and the Medical Care Act . (Note that there were almost no conditions attached to the CAP or post-secondary education components of the transfers .) The genesis of the CHA was recognition of the extent to which the federal ability to control provincial behaviour had been reduced . One particular problem was the absence of any provision for graduated withholding of the federal contribution . Because there was little desire to withhold the full contribution for minor violations of terms and conditions, provinces increasingly were permitting extra billing for insured services . In response to the resulting political uproar, the federal government again turned to Justice Emmett Hall and asked him to report on the future of medicare . His 1979 report,' Canada's National - Provincial Health Program for the 1980s' noted some of the areas recommended in his earlier report which had not yet been acted on, and warned that accessibility to health care was being threatened through rising user fees . The federal response was to pass the 1984 Canada Health Act which replaced both HIDS and the Medical Care Act and clarified the federal conditions . </P> <P> On December 12, 1983, the Canada Health Act was introduced by the Liberal government, under Trudeau, spearheaded by then Minister of Health Monique Bégin . As she noted, the government decided not to expand coverage (e.g., to mental health and public health), but instead to incorporate much of the language from the HIDS and Medical Care Acts . The Canada Health Act was passed unanimously by Parliament in 1984, and received Royal Assent on 1 April . Following election of a Conservative government under Brian Mulroney in September 1984, in June 1985, after consultation with the provinces, new federal Health Minister Jake Epp wrote a letter to his provincial counterparts that clarified and interpreted the criteria points and other parts of the new act . </P> <P> The preamble of the act states that the objective of Canadian Health Care policy is "that continued access to quality health care without financial or other barriers will be critical to maintaining and improving the health and well - being of Canadians . The primary objective of the Act is "to protect, promote and restore the physical and mental well - being of residents of Canada and to facilitate reasonable access to health services without financial or other barriers ." (Section 3). </P>

When was the canada health act passed into law