Mr. Speaker, universality in health care does not exist. Tim Jeffries, a Canadian, was lying on an operating room table at the Peace Arch hospital in White Rock waiting for surgery to repair a broken ankle. However, when the medical staff learned that his health care premiums had lapsed, they refused to operate on Jeffries unless he came up with $1,300 cash or a credit card.
Where was the Minister of Health to protect the principle of universality when Tim Jeffries was taken off that operating table?