This might be the question you would ask if you lived in Canada. Or, this might be the question you would ask if you enroll in an HMO. After waiting for years in line for a coronary artery bypass procedure or a total hip arthroplasty, you could easily die from something else. You would be well within your rights to want your hip replaced after your death, having waited so long for it. I think this is reasonable as the Canadian government and the medical directors and investors in HMO’s actually want you to die prior to your surgery date.
This is crazy, of course, but might keep those honest that would otherwise benefit from denying you care, don’t you think?
G. Keith Smith, M.D.