Disparaging the Canadian health care system on the September 25 broadcast of her 1310 KFKA program, Amy Oliver misleadingly stated that in Canada, “private health insurance is illegal.” However, while health care delivery in Canada differs from province to province -- with some provinces barring citizens from obtaining private insurance for procedures covered under the state-administered system -- private insurance is available for medical care falling outside federal purview in the provinces of Quebec, New Brunswick, Saskatchewan, and Newfoundland and Labrador, which “allows private insurance to cover services insured under its provincial health care insurance plan,” according to Canada's Parliamentary Information and Research Service (PIRS).

From the September 25 broadcast of 1310 KFKA's The Amy Oliver Show:

OLIVER: But one of the things that I really wanted to point out -- and this, to me, does it -- in the United States, we can get treatment. There's always a possibility your insurance company might deny coverage, but you can get treatment. That's very different than what happens in Canada, where you can flat-out be denied treatment and you can't get it; it isn't available, or you're on a very long waiting list until you get here -- or until you either -- your name comes up or you get to the United States. Those are your choices. It's an enormous difference. Had I not had insurance, which, fortunately, I do -- or I should say, had my son not had insurance, and fortunately, he does -- I still could have gotten treatment. And then somehow, some way, figured out how I was going to pay for it. That is an enormous difference. In Canada, even if you can pay for it, even if you mortgage your home, you can't buy treatment in Canada. And private health insurance is illegal. It's illegal. So what do they do? They mortgage what they have. If they really want treatment -- mortgage what they have, sell what they can, and come into the United States. We really have to recognize that distinction. It is vital.

Contrary to Oliver's assertion that private health insurance is “illegal” in Canada, a 2005 Canadian Supreme Court decision, Chaoulli v. Quebec, found that citizens in Quebec have the right to purchase private insurance to pay for medical treatment, noting that Quebec's “ban on private medical insurance constitute[d] a deprivation of life and security of the person.” In 2006, the Quebec National Assembly enacted legislation that “enable[s] a person to enter into an insurance contract that covers the cost of the insured services required for the surgery specified by law or for other treatment determined by a regulation of the Government made after examination by the appropriate committee of the National Assembly.”

Furthermore, a 2005 PIRS report, “Private Health Care Funding and Delivery under the Canada Health Act,” noted that "[s]ix provinces (Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario, Prince Edward Island and Quebec) have ... expressly prohibited private insurance from covering services insured under the provincial plan," and further explained that in those provinces, private health care is available, but “only complementary to the public plans.” The PIRS report also noted that "[t]hree of the four other provinces ... permit private insurance coverage of provincially insured health services" but “have economic disincentives that discourage physicians from opting out of public health care insurance plans.” According to the report:

In Nova Scotia, a physician who has opted out of the provincial plan is prohibited from charging fees that exceed the compensation provided by the public plan. In New Brunswick and Saskatchewan, an opted-out physician cannot be reimbursed by the provincial plan. Newfoundland and Labrador is the only province that both allows private insurance to cover services insured under its provincial health care insurance plan and does not use other means to discourage physicians from opting out of the public plan.