Health Care Is a Right, Not a Privilege

Yes but a main thing is this.

'The evidence in this case shows that delays in the public health care system are widespread, and that, in some serious cases, patients die as a result of waiting lists for public health care,' the Supreme Court ruled.

The high court stopped short of striking down the constitutionality of the country's vaunted health care system nationwide, but experts across the legal spectrum said they expected the decision to lead to sweeping changes in the Canadian health care system.

"They are going to have to change the fundamental design of the system," he said. "They will have to build in an element of timely care or otherwise allow the development of a private medical system."

But in recent years patients have been forced to wait longer periods for diagnostic tests and elective surgery while the wealthy and well connected either sought care in the United States or used influence to jump medical lines.

The court ruled that the waiting lists had become so long that they violated patients' "life and personal security, inviolability and freedom" under the Quebec charter of human rights and freedoms, which covers about one-quarter of Canada's population.

"The evidence in this case shows that delays in the public health care system are widespread, and that, in some serious cases, patients die as a result of waiting lists for public health care,"

"Government-run health care systems like the one in Canada not only deny, but also delay care for weeks, months and even years,'' U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, recently charged.

The long waits have sparked a robust debate over whether Canada should move more closely to a U.S.-style system in which those who have money or good insurance can get faster access to health care.

One irrefutable truth about the Canadian system is that people often have to wait weeks, even months, for non-emergency care.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2jijuj1ysw