A different view of queues in Ontario.

Prologue: Every health care system, regardless of how rich the country in which it operates, rations medical services, because no nation has the resources to match the insatiable demand for services. In the variety of approaches to rationing that nations employ, as David Naylor points out in this paper, the United Kingdom and the United States represent the extremes, Britain's National Health Service (NHS), which offers patients medical care that is free at the point of service, practices queue-based rationing. People face time delays before medical problems are addressed. In the United States, those with health insurance rarely have to wait long for treatment. But those without insurance have no ready access to care and must fend for themselves in public hospitals and other institutions prepared to accept charity cases. Canada prides itself on developing a health care system that strikes a middle ground. It is publicly funded and universally available, but care is privately provided. Administration and d...