The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that suffering - and dying - while waiting for "non-urgent" medical care violates our right to "life, liberty and security of the person."

Based on the evidence, the court ruled that delays for surgery cause irreparable physical injury, and can even result in death. Further, living in pain for months - or years - while waiting for surgery interferes with the quality and enjoyment of life, not to mention a person's ability to earn a living.

Unfortunately for Canadians it is against the law for us to spend our own after-tax dollars to provide for our own health care. Quebec, Alberta, B.C. and P.E.I. all have laws preventing citizens from spending their own money on the health care insurance of their choice. Medical insurance can only be bought for medical services that are not available in the government-run monopoly. Practically speaking, this means that Albertans are required to suffer - and sometimes die - on waiting lists for so-called "non-urgent" surgeries. In other words, Albertans are allowed to spend their own money on alcohol, tobacco, fancy vacations, jewelry, VLTs, fast food . . . but not on better health care or faster health care. Alberta's law allows you to spend as much as you want on the health of your dog or cat, but not on the health of your child. With our current two-tier system, only the very wealthy can jet off to the U.S., while the rest of us are forced to wait for government care.

In court, the Quebec government argued that allowing people to spend their own money on private medical insurance would destroy the public health care system, or at least weaken it. But based on the evidence presented, the court ruled that "many western democracies that do not impose a monopoly on the delivery of health care have successfully delivered to their citizens medical services that are superior to and more affordable than the services that are presently available in Canada." In other words, a government monopoly is not necessary to the provision of quality public health care.

Private health care and private insurance in Germany, Australia, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Austria and other countries do not harm their public systems. The court ruled that "when we look to the evidence rather than to assumptions, the connection between prohibiting private insurance and maintaining quality public health care vanishes."

Canada, North Korea and Cuba are the only countries in the world which outlaw the freedom to spend one's own after-tax income on one's own health. Alberta Health Minister Iris Evans should take the initiative to get rid of Alberta's current ban on buying private insurance, by amending the Alberta Health Care Insurance Act.

Premier Klein's government should ignore the emotional rhetoric about stopping "two-tier" health care by throwing ever more tax dollars at the government's Soviet-era health care monopoly. Two-tier health care is already here: the very rich can secure timely, quality care for themselves by going to the U.S. or other countries; professional athletes never have to wait for surgery; and politicians don't wait in line either when they get sick.

Premier Klein has said much about the need to reform health care, but has done very little. Here is an opportunity for his government to act in the interests of patients and taxpayers.