Humans are supposedly rational beings. I disagree. Humans are rationalizing beings. Given the right circumstances, people can and will rationalize anything.

Kate--excellent --we already have at least a 6 tier healthcare system--don't forget WCB, criminals in jail(you know--those who can sue the government if they don't get timely care)and as you mentioned sports figures, the elite like Buzz and Paul(has his own private clinic)and who could forget dear Adrienne Clarkson--who was so lucky to be able to use a 'cancellation' to get her pacemaker in just one day!
We sit here and are told to shut up, pay taxes and die while our 'betters' are given the ultimate in healthcare.
The gentleman who went to England to get his liver transplant and is cancer and HepC free--the same man who is suing the Ontario government for the cost--should just have died quietly, as Ontario refused to use a donor liver(you don't need the whole liver, just a part of it for transplant). This same man had HepC from contaminated blood and subsequently developed liver cancer.
This is our healthcare system-no accountability to us, the taxpayer and the font of all cash for this broken system--but our betters will praise it for their own ends--like union jobs that are draining the system of the cash needed to repair the system.

As you said in your previous healthcare post, Kate, the attitude is pervasive among those working in the system. My father was referred to a neurologist, and in the initial meeting, the neurologist tossed out the usual chatty questions about what Dad did for a living and so on. Well, as soon as he heard that Dad was a retired university professor, he became noticeably more attentive and helpful, and Dad got his diagnostics much quicker than his GP had led him to expect. Dad was furious. Shortly after that, a musician friend of mine took a call while I was visiting, got quite agitated, and explained to me afterward that he was waiting for a report of test results from a neurologist - the same one, I realized - and thinking of starting a sit-in at said neurologist's office to get his report out of the pile it must have been sitting in for a month or more.

now I know why Buzzy Boy is so strong on the Liberals.

As a professional hypocrite, he feels ohhhhh so good wrapped up in the LPC comfy fur.

Alberta welcomes Sask. residents to use our medical system where theirs fails them. We have done well by managing our resources, paying off public debt and legislating wisely in our health services systems (rumored to be the best in the nation...at least the doctors and nurses that are flooding in agree).

We hope you stay and help build the new west by using, expanding and protecting the Alberta advantage. We hope you see the Alberta advantage as not just an sconomic advantage but a broader civil concept which demands, as a government, acting empathetically and responsibly with public resources and limiting government interference in the engines which produce prosperity and service public needs. We hope you see that this promotes individual prosperity, collective prosperity and security and maximum freedom.

Welcome to Alberta health care refugees!
You join our economic and political refugees in building the new west.

Bang on Kate, you have crystallized the situation beautifully.

Hypocrisy and double standards are the hallmarks of the medicare argument by those that preach its sanctity. I loathe the phrase "jumping the queue", because it completely deflects from the reality where in many regions there is no queue to be had. This was very apparent in the Auton case, where the government argued that the parents were trying to jump the queue, and the court found that regardless of that, the government did not even have to provide a queue to such services.

For anyone that is interested, here is a link to a great paper co-authored by Patrick Monahan, Dean of Osgoode Hall Law School. The main gist of the article was what he argued before the SCC in the Chaoulli case.

http://www.cdhowe.org/pdf/commentary_164.pdf

Cheers, and Merry Christmas.

Hope this opens the eyes of some CBC-types: it's just been pointed out that the emperor has no clothes!

MERRY CHRISTMAS KATE FROM ALL OF MINE TO ALL OF YOURS. HOPING ALL IS WELL FOR THE SEASON. KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK.

DAZZ

Brilliant essay, Kate.

Can you still confirm that members of the media are browsing your site?

Have you given any thought about offering them anonymity to respond to the media-related posts that come on SDA?

Is that even technically possible?

I, for one, wuold be very interested in their candid answers to some serious questions.

As others have commented, Kate you are right on the mark. I hope that some of the ersatz leader of Canada's political parties are reading your missives.

Great work.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Good one Kate, it basically boils down to this: Stand in line while suffering for the good of the "system".

Merry Christmas and have a good New Year.

Brilliant essay Kate, right on the money in all regards.

I'm so tired of the notion in this country, be it health care or anything else, that equality = lowest comon denominator for all.

The INEVITABLE CONSEQUENCES of a state healthcare monopoly:

- Extreme politicization;
- Totalitarian control, state dictated prohibitions;
- No patient choice;
- System unresponsive to clients or to change of any kind;
- Destruction of the client/doctor relationship;
- Rationing of ever more scarce resources;
- Corruption by state officials and other influential citizens;
- Special advantage based on geography, wealth, celebrity and political connections.

And this is the NDP/Liberal model for childcare and the NDP ideal for the economy in general.

Talk about SCARY.

Kate, you hit it bang on.

Another point that people don't realize enough, though, is how much the system as it is is hanging on solely on the goodwill of the doctors and nurses in it. They are all going above and beyond--doing extra shifts, working more than they should--because there just aren't enough personnel. People are leaving in droves. And when these people finally burn out, we're all in trouble.

But no one's talking about this. In the hospitals, everyone blames the administration. The government does, too, for not running the hospitals well. And the administration blames the doctors. No one puts the blame at the foot of the Canada Health Act. It's like we're all squabbling amongst ourselves instead of addressing the elephant in the living room.

I have more on this line here (Hip at Home!: It's Death Therapy, Bob), talking about our particular hospital.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Another thing people should realize is that almost all nurses and an alarming number of doctors think the totalitarian system is just fine or that it needs to made even more restrictive.

All pigs are equal but some are more equal than others...

Had my MRI yesterday, a week after the doctor prescribed it. Even had real coffee and fresh baked cookies while I was in the waiting room!

As mentioned before (I think the Frasier Institute), in Canada patients are an expense, down here they are the customer. Big difference.

Merry Christmas, eh.

p.s. I am not a hockey player not union boss.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all.

I'll be getting a CT scan on Dec. 30 (2 weeks after booking it), because the MRI would've taken too long to get. Oh well, at least they'll catch it if there's anything 'big'.

I wonder how certain medical procedures, such as abortion (and sex changes for inmates) can be dealt with so quickly, when life-saving treatments are put in a line. Those are some priorities that we accept from our health-care system!

Perhaps a good thing that Buzz has joined the liberal ranks with his track record of killing GM, now he can concentrate on killing the liberal party.

'Outpatient services' are like a cattle call, it's disgusting treatment and apparently the same in every hospital.

I'm sure the well-heeled visitors I saw coming and going from Ken Dryden's constituency office would never have been herded like us proletariat.

Speaking of millionaires clubs such as the Liberal Party, I wonder how many of them 'made' their money via our spending huge sums on 'health care'? Billions upon billions of dollars don't seem to be doing much for us.