"Cooniedog" wrote in message
I'm just curious about the health care systems in Canada & Great
Britain. They are currently running TV ads here in the States saying
that Canadians and Brits are refused certain health care or have months
and even years of delays before they receive treatments for some
illnesses.

I'll answer your question the best I can, but it's definitely not a
woodworking question. It's also a difficult question to answer. It's true,
that in some cases, there's an extremely large waiting list for treatment.
It's not an outright refusal of healthcare, just a fact that someone may
have to wait years for treatment. Some might argue that it's another way to
refuse help. Many Canadians who can afford it, choose to go to the USA and
pay for treatment they might have to wait years for in Canada. That part is
certainly true.

There are certain cases where some individuals have been denied healthcare
primarily on the basis that there's only so much money to go around and that
it's considered more prudent to direct funds where the greatest number of
individuals can be treated. A simple example of this (and many of these
cases are in the courts) is funding for special education for autistic
children. I believe the Ontario courts ruled that funding ends for those
children six years or older even though it's agreed that they'd still
benefit from this education. I'm not prepared to argue for or against the
morality of any of this.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2006/...m-ontario.html

Another example and something I consider to be health care is dentistry.
It's not covered by general healthcare anywhere that I'm aware of in Canada,
yet it's agreed that poor dental care can result in a host of diseases ~
diabetes for example. So, yes simple example would confirm that some types
of healthcare are not funded.

So, maybe the answer to your question is yes to both questions. But it's too
complicated question to answer outright. There's always going to be
exceptions to every argument and there's always a host of variables to
consider when answering it. Personally, I have a host of medical
difficulties. I'm not going to go into details, but for the problems I've
had and currently have, I feel I have a great deal of experience with the
Ontario healthcare system. Does that make me an expert? I wouldn't think so,
but for the average person walking around, I think my experiences eclipse
most of what the general public has experienced. Anyways, that's the way I
feel whether it's factually true or not.

Why the question?