The price of state intervention in markets: corruption that would make an investment banker blush

Corruption in Canada's 'fair' healthcare system is rife.  If you have the connections and/or the money you get the care.  If not, not so much.  Perhaps that's why there is more stratification of access by income group in Canada than in the US.  The state corrupts everything it touches.  Everything.  Hat tip, Carpe Deim

But now there's a growing black market in Canada that allows patients to make cash payments to get to the head of the line or get the experienced surgeon they want, according to the Montreal Gazette in this article, "Want Fast Care? Slip an MD Some Cash":

 "When their mother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, the twin sisters didn't hesitate for a moment: They chose the surgeon they wanted and slipped him $2,000 in cash to bump their mother to the top of the waiting list.

"We wanted to save our mother," Vivian Green said. "It was cash incentive, to buy our place ahead of everyone else." Green and her sister, Ora Marcus, say bribes are an open secret in the medical field. "If you have money, you live, and if you don't, you die."