It seems odd that the Canadian system would be so very different from most other socialized systems (including Britain, of which Canada is still nominally a part, though I don't pretend to fully understand how that works). It certainly strikes me as more unfair to say people can't pay out of pocket, but a quick stop by Wikipedia informed me that the laws vary by province rather than being nationally set. I also found this tidbit from BC:


A vast hue and cry over the length of waiting lists for heart surgery FORCED the government to provide quicker surgeries, despite 20% higher costs--and not even ten people took advantage of the opportunity to jump to the head of the line. It makes me wonder how many of the horror stories about people dying on waiting lists are anecdotal, if even that. Still, while I don't envy your dad waiting all day to have a sprain treated, he DID get treated and, if it's anything like the province where Scott lives, he didn't have to pay a dime beyond what he'd already paid in income tax. That's a far sight better than going to an ER where you'll be triaged and likely still wait most of the day to be told you've got a sprain--and here's your $500 bill for having it treated at an ER since they're the only ones who MUST treat you even without insurance. It brings to mind the man who went to a Chicago ER with chest pains and was told he just had gas, given an Alka Seltzer and sent on his way; he made it as far as the parking lot before his heart attack killed him. Or the girl who died last year hours before her private insurer caved to public pressure and decided that maybe they'd cover her organ transplant after all, though they did stress in their press release that she was NOT covered under her policy, they chose to do her a favor. They just chose to do so only after a year and a half of legal battles and, of course, the death of the patient.

Understand, I believe in a two tiered system; public healthcare should be availabe for essential basic care but if you want and can afford extra luxuries they should be available. Of course, based solely on Wikipedia (i.e. NOT direct experience with the Canadian systems) it looks like that's available; people can pay extra for out of pocket for private rooms and the like, but heart surgery is heart surgery and it's really not fair to say you can get it next week if you can pay for it yourself but have to wait until next year if not. However, the sticking point seems to be that Canadian federal law forbids charging patients for essential care, so that problem can be remedied by simply making it legal to charge patients for their care rather than billing the government, but requiring enrollment in and support of a public system so no one does without care entirely. You may have a hard time convincing a majority of your fellow Canadians they should be directly billed for essential healthcare though.