We are not dying immediately from diseases that a few years ago would have killed us. Canadians have two fundamental concerns with their Health Care: wait times for diagnosis and surgery; and living with diseases, such as heart attack, stroke, and cancer.

SARS struck 1 in a million people in Canada. Mad-Cow Disease struck 130 worldwide. West Nile Virus struck 18 in 2002.

Cancer strikes 1 in 3.

In Canada, if you’re not a politician, a police officer, a prisoner, or a pet, you wait…for diagnosis and for surgery. And sometimes you die waiting.

Private insurance companies now afford consumers “a way out”. There is help for those who survive cancer diagnoses, a heart attack, a stroke, Alzheimer’s, aortic surgery and valve replacement, Parkinson’s, Multiple Sclerosis, deafness and blindness, and a host of other critical illnesses. People buy the policy and get the cash they need. They use the cash to accommodate their condition or, at their discretion, pay for treatment or surgery in order to get better.

In Canada, it is illegal to pay for treatment and surgery of critical illnesses. It is legal for governments to make people die on waiting lists. But that simply means people should take their money from their insurance company and buy their health care elsewhere.

It is sad that this money couldn’t stay in Canada to help improve our own system.

D’Arcy Barker is a Chartered Financial Planner and Registered Employee Benefits Consultant- www.barkermoney.com

E-mail: ReduceYourTaxes@barkermoney.com