Debates about health care policy are a rich topic for editorial cartoonists. The 17 cartoons described here, from the period 1944 to 1986, cover the implementation of universal hospital and medical care insurance as well as the subsequent passage of the Canada Health Act. These cartoons by Canada's major cartoonists trace the issues arising from debates over Medicare with characteristic wit and vigour, as they draw on an existing repertoire of visual imagery relating to doctors, patients and health care.