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Even though I'm not fat, nor a smoker, nor a boozer -- I'm still concerned about this trend...

I'm a little confused. You're initial beef had to do with the
apparent trend of doctors cherry-picking the healthier lifestyle
folks and giving them preference over the fat slobs, smokers and boozers.
Then you claim that you are a victim of this trend even though
you aren't a fat slob, smoker or boozer...
Are you an exception to the rule, or are you in denial about your weight
and alcohol problem???

You got me -- I'm actually 450 pounds of lard, connected intravenously to an alcohol drip, and breathing in a tent filled with concentrated cigar smoke.

If you read my postings carefully; you would see that my self-interest in this is the fact that I'm an aging baby boomer. Our health care system is already straining to keep up -- what will happen in a few years, when multitudes of elderly patients are banging at the doors -- and fewer young taxpayers are out there to pay the tab.

There is a lot to be admired about Canada's health care system -- thousands of very smart people have worked many years to make it work as well as they can. However, it is simply not sustainable in its present form. Rather than getting defensive about it; we should try to dispassionately look for solutions.

Whenever a valuable service is being given away for free, it is inevitable that some sort of rationing occurs. We have overt rationing; in the form of lists of ailments that are covered, or not covered. We also have prescribed and proscribed treatments (sometimes the second-best treatment, in the interest of economy). We have had limits on the number of places in medical and nursing schools. Now -- I see signs of refusing services to whole categories of people. This is disturbing; because, as budgets get tighter and tighter, more and more services will have to be denied, to more and more people.

Like most people, I could not afford to pay by credit card for major treatment in the U.S. I am entirely dependent on our health care system working for me when I need it. I could have afforded to pay for private insurance -- which is an option most other countries allow. If a private insurer suddenly announced that it wasn't going to honour it's policies -- there would be criminal charges, and civil suits galore. Governments can weasel out of any implied contract -- but, they shouldn't be allowed to get away with it.