My sister and her husband own and operate a cattle ranch in south west
Saskatchewan. On this ranch they have several saddle horses. About three
years about one of her horses became ill and was in obvious distress. She
took it into the nearest vet clinic where it was diagnosed with gall stones,
apparently a very painful condition for horses as well as people. The vet
recommended that the horse be operated on as soon as possible. My sister
left the animal with the vet, who operated on him that night. My sister
picked up the horse four days later, and took it home. After a couple of
weeks of rest the horse was as good as new.

At about the same time my sister's friend in the city of Saskatoon was also
diagnosed with gall stones and the doctor recommended that she be operated
on as soon as  possible. There is one glitch in this, "as soon as possible"
in Saskatchewan's Medicare system means 18 months. So this 35 year old
mother of one had to put her life on hold, endure several trips to the
emergency room whenever she had an attack. She could not afford the
ambulance (not covered by Medicare) so she had to take a cab every time she
had one, then she sat in emergency for several hours until they gave her a
bunch of powerful pain killers and sent her home. All of this severely
curtailed her enjoyment of life, as you can well imagine. After 18 months of
this she was operated on.

My sister pointed out if she had made her horse wait 18 months she would
have found herself in front of a judge, answering charges of cruelty to
animals, and rightfully so. No one would do that to an animal but apparently
it is acceptable to do it to humans in Canada.