Dr. Josée Lavoie presents The Canada Health Act, Medicare and the Care of First Nations. At this event, Dr. Josée Lavoi explains how Canadian health care works, and where improvements could be made to better meet the healthcare needs of all Canadians. (Note, the audio podcast is also posted in iTunes.) The Canada Health Act 1984 (CHA) is considered foundational to Canada’s publicly funded health care system (known as Medicare). The CHA provides for the federal transfer of funding to the provinces/territories, in exchange for provincial/territorial adherence to Medicare’s key principles of universality, comprehensiveness, portability, accessibility, and public administration. Medicare is a decentralized health care system, managed independently by Canada’s 10 provincial and three territorial governments, allowing for regional adaptations to fit varying degrees of urbanity, remoteness and needs. The Act extends care to Indigenous Canadians (first Nations, Métis and Inuit). The Act is however silent on its relationship to the Indigenous health care system – what some have described as Canada’s 14th health care system. The CHA has not kept pace with Indigenous self-government activities that have since spread across Canada. It has unfortunately crystallized the federal/provincial/territorial/Indigenous jurisdictional fragmentation that perpetuates health inequities and has failed to clarify these jurisdictions’ obligations towards Indigenous peoples. Dr. Josée Lavoie is of French Quebec ancestry, raised in northern Quebec isolated communities. She is a Professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences at the University of Manitoba, Canada and Director of Ongomiizwin Research. A Fulbright Arctic Scholar from 2018-19, she holds a PhD in Health Policy and Financing from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK.