Final answer:
The Great Depression significantly strained Canada's healthcare system due to increased poverty and unemployment, and decreased government funding. With personal savings and insurance resources depleted, many Canadians could not afford healthcare, exacerbating health inequalities and malnutrition-related diseases. This crisis later influenced calls for and the eventual development of stronger social welfare and healthcare systems.
Step-by-step explanation:
The Great Depression of the 1930s greatly strained Canada's healthcare system, as it did globally. Economic turmoil led to widespread poverty and unemployment, increasing the number of people who were desperate for medical assistance. However, with government revenues also declining, the fiscal capacity to fund public healthcare was limited. Additionally, the crisis highlighted and exacerbated the inequalities in the healthcare system, particularly for marginalized communities such as African Americans, who faced a 'Black medical ghetto' with insufficient healthcare provision.
Due to the desperate financial situation, many individuals depleted their savings and insurance policies. The cash surrender payments of individual insurance policies spiked during the Great Depression. Once these personal resources were exhausted, Canadians, like their American neighbors, often had no choice but to rely on charity, family, or go without healthcare entirely. The economic impact on families led to grave social consequences including poor health outcomes because many people couldn't afford regular medical care, leading to an increase in diseases related to malnutrition and lack of proper healthcare.
In response to the crisis, there were public calls for governmental intervention in healthcare funding. These demands, coupled with the direct experience of mass impoverishment, eventually influenced the development of more robust social welfare and healthcare programs, although these changes were more gradual and reinforced after the end of World War II.