FORGET, Evelyn L, University of Manitoba

Will people be healthier if we can guarantee that their family income will never fall below a certain level? Will children stay in school longer? Will families be able to escape from the drudgery of "just making ends meet" and engage in the long range planning that can ultimately allow them to escape from poverty? Between 1974 and 1977, the town of Dauphin Manitoba was chosen to participate in a unique social experiment. Everyone who lived in Dauphin or its rural municipality was eligible to receive a guaranteed annual income. We will examine the immediate and long-term health effects of income security for this population. Are the Dauphin children who managed to graduate from high school because of this program still healthier than their contemporaries? Do their own children benefit from the higher earning capacity of their parents? If a guaranteed annual income has long-term health and economic benefits for Canadians, then ensuring income security may be a better use of some health care dollars than spending those dollars to deal with the poor health caused by poverty.