Medical system...fair?

I was having a conversation with a friend the other night about the medical system here in Canada. We were discussing the merits of a mixed private and public system. I've heard the argument that this would be unfair to the people who can't afford to pay for more. The argument on the flip side is that it would put much needed relief on the public system. I obviously am not an expert but I do know that in the places where this works, the doctors have to spend a vast percentage of their billable hours in the public system to ensure that there is sufficient support.

I got my back up when the discussion turned to fair. It occurred to me that the sick people who were not working, thus not paying taxes were the ones who got the best service. The poor suckers like me who pay 40% of my paycheque to the system and goes to a doctor once a year has to wait hours to even talk to someone. That surely is not fair. To be clear, I do not have a problem with paying the obscene amount of taxes but I should also have the option of paying extra to see a doctor if and when required.

Speaking of taxes, last week the provincial government came out with the fiscal budget. As part of that, there is to be a 10% tax cut for people who make under $108k per year. Knee jerk reaction was to celebrate but then I thought about it. Seems that there would be much better uses for those billions. There are always stories about our health care and education systems, not to mention the environment. Truly, the extra in my paycheque would be nice but since I don't miss it anyway, I would much prefer that this "excess" money is put back into the system. This reminds me of the tax rebate cheque all Albertans received early last year. They were all ecstatic and I snickered the whole time at how short sighted and ridiculous they all were and here we are a year later. Sigh.