Happens every day at the drug companies - that's why most new medicines are palliatives and not cures. What good is a pill that cures someone when they could have to take your medicine for life? And pay for it for every day of their life?

ie. It's not reductio ad absurdum, and there have been non pharmaceutical cases, especially in psychiatric hospitals.

(Can you prove you're sane?)

and everyone is covered.

Every province (10, and 3 territories) is responsible for their own health care plan. There is variance in premiums that are collected and the manner in which they are collected.

In Ontario, the premiums are collected annually at income tax time and employers that have payrolls of over $400,000 pay them at that time. Canada has equalization payments. Ontario has never received equalization payments from its inception. The wealthier provinces do not receive, the poorer ones receive funds that makes their healthcare equal to wealthier provinces. Premiums that people pay in Ontario are modest.

We choose our own family physician, but in reality, the decision relies on if the physician is taking patients. Family doctors refer their patients to specialists if the patient's treatment is beyond their expertise--no choice is given to the patient about the specialist, (unless the patient expresses dissatisfaction about the specialist--if so, usually another specialist is selected). Small, rural communities usually have community health centres where several family doctors are able to relieve one another so no one doctor is on call all the time. Hospitals in rural communities usually transfer patients to larger centres if more intensive treatment is needed. If an ambulance is called to transport a patient that lives in a rural community--the ambulance attendants would select whether to take the patient to a rural hospital or urban.

Quality care is accessible to everyone and no one is denied treatment.

Patients never see the bills--doctors send their bills to the billing centres within the provinces where the treatments were administered. There are agreements between provinces should a person travel from their home province to another province and require services from a doctor. There is no national plan for prescriptions. Not everything is covered on the national plan. i.e. eye and dental care, 'elective cosmetic',--patients either have supplementary insurance or they pay for those services. Drugs are covered if hospitalized. Ontario has ward coverage, but if a bed is not available and they have to put you in semi or private rooms, the province would pick up the tab. Seniors , age 65, get drug coverage after the first $100, they pay $6.11 for prescriptions (if the drug is covered--most are).

Preventative care usually catches diseases before they become major complaints. There are people who go to doctors for colds, but I would imagine that after a short period of time the doctor would instruct his receptionist to monitor their complaints before an appointment is made. That would be the physician's judgment and would not be taken lightly by the doctor involved. Usually there are nurses in the doctor's office who would act as a screener.

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I would think if the United States ever does go national--each state would administer its own plan--similar to your and my country with contributions from the federal government. There would have to be agreements between states because states are close together and people interact in neighbouring or often in distal states.

You've got it right for the most part, Canuck. Except maybe the part on choosing your own specialist. With my physician, I can choose anyone I wish. Also, while the alternative route is gaining strength in Canada, some physicians continue to resist this trend whereas others encourage it. My physician never objects to my refusal to take "toxic" western drugs. In fact, she takes alternative supplements herself LOL. And so does my physician friend. I take the toxicity in western drugs very seriously as I suffered severe pain for 6 weeks and almost died from a drug reaction.

The Canadian healthcare system has some disadvantages. Because people perceive healthcare to be free, the waste of supplies in hospitals is enormous. Also, unneccesary vistis to the doctor's office or to the Emergency department drain funds from the healthcare system.

"Those who can live on little money are rich". - Adrena

of a specialist that I wanted to see, my doctor would refer me to him/her.

No way do I perceive healthcare as free. I take absolutely nothing...no pills, no herbal medicines, no artificial vitamins, and my health is fine. Had my last check up a couple of months ago. I am careful with what I eat and grow my own vegetables. The stuff in the store is usually devoid of vitamins and lacks taste. Unfortunately in winter, fresh produce and fruit has to be bought and I do not buy stuff that is labelled organic, because usually it's not--why pay extra for produce that has been subjected to chemicals? Whenever more than fifteen pounds overweight, I go on a diet and lose it. (last year did not do that and now have to lose 25, which means staying on it longer--lost 5 pounds last week. I do not exercise and am very sedentary.

There are very 'few' people that abuse the healthcare system in Canada. Why would they...it does not cost them anything to either go or not. Going to the hospital or to your doctor is not a big deal! I'm sure hospitals take pilfering into account when inventories are taken -- stealing exists in all parts of society and healthcare is no exception. Drugs are counted and only those with a key have access. When drugs and valuable equipment are missing, security is increased.

I hope one day America does get single-payer, non-profit national healthcare.

federal input and involvement. It is not reasonable that poorer states can offer the same services as richer states. How they work that out would be up to the Federal and State governments. To tell you the truth, I don't know how Newfoundland and the eastern provinces are able to compare their system to Ontario's. It has to be virtually impossible to compare services in the Northwest territories, Inuvit and the Yukon to Ontario's or for that matter any other province. They have a miniscule population, but very high transportation costs because of the amount of land mass between settlements and also experience extremely unfavourable weather conditions. No idea if the Federal government puts a ceiling on how much they receive? Northern parts of all of the provinces, with the exception of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island, because their latitudes do not go North far enough to experience like conditions as the territories and Northern parts of the rest of th provinces. My assumption is there is disparity within our enormous-sized provinces.