In Canada, some patients have to travel to the United States for life-saving medical treatment. Patients are also denied to right to pay for their own treatment in Canada, as was the case of a 57-year old man denied a hip replacement operation by the government.
The Wall Street Journal article “Too Old” for Hip Surgery: As we inch towards nationalized health care, important lessons from north of the border reports on these and other cases of how health care is rationed in Canada. “The experiences of these Canadians — along with the untold stories of the 750,794 citizens waiting a median of 17.3 weeks from mandatory general-practitioner referrals to treatment in 2008 — show how miserable things can get when government is put in charge of managing health insurance.”