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Comment by takinola | Hacker News Reader

> The state has a monopoly on the purchasing of healthcare services, it is illegal in most provinces to buy any healthcare for your family.

Why is it illegal to purchase healthcare privately? When I lived in the UK, I skipped the NHS and used my private insurance all the time to avoid all the issues you listed. Why not make it available to those that can afford the option?

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Well, obviously I strongly disagree with this justification, but it's thought that if you allow for private healthcare options, that will suck resources out of the public system. If I use my own money to pay for the attention of a doctor, that's me taking that doctor away from the public system, making everyone else worse off.

Just cross the border for medicine like millions of Canadians do.

Not sure if you're trying to downplay the problems or just offering a tip, but "You can flee the country and pay out of pocket somewhere with a functioning healthcare system" isn't much of a defense. Millions of Canadians aren't able to afford flight, hotel, time off work, arrange care for their dependents etc to go down to the states for weeks to resolve health issues. Not to mention, not all Canadians are even allowed to go to the states (people with criminal records, for instance). Also, hopping on a flight isn't an option for people with ongoing needs.

Yes those are real issues, and I didn’t necessarily mean to go to the United States, lots of people in the US also flee the border for certain medicine.

It’s, of course, a both/and situation. Try to improve things at home while searching for options if needed.

I do believe there is a bit of absurdity going on where parts of the Canadian system are trying to save money though by offering suicide.

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