Dear editor,How disappointed I was to read your opinion of how having choices in health care is somehow a “privilege for the wealthy,” and how it “violates the Canada Health Act.”Curious that you made no mention of how the government health authorities continue to violate the same act on a much larger scale by denying comprehensiveness (covering all services), denying reasonable access (ridiculous wait times and conditions), and underfunding of payments to hospitals/health care providers to cover the cost of the health care delivered.If our health care was being delivered efficiently, effectively, and actually as the Canada Health Act describes, private services would have no business.I know several individuals that felt they had to choose to pay over and above their taxes for their health care (MRI, paying privately for physiotherapy, going out of country for care, or paying for private surgery in Canada) when the government chose to violate the Canada Health Act.They paid thousands and thousands of dollars in taxes for their health care (and the health care of others) all their working life thinking that it would access them care when they needed it. They waited along with all the others because for a long time it was all they could do. These individuals do not own yachts, winter in exotic lands, or fit the definition of “wealthy” by any stretch. I am almost certain that they make no more than you do, Mr. Allan.The cost of their entire treatment to return to health cost them less than a two week holiday in Mexico. And it was done in about the same time.All the while, they continued to pay taxes so that others can continue to wait in a now shorter line. How criminal.The bigger question, I would offer, is just what will the VIHA do with all those people who hopefully will have had their wait time shortened for MRI, and now know their diagnosis and what they need for treatment.Where will they go then? Will they be able to see a specialist within a year? Will they have access to an appropriately funded hospital for care in a reasonable timeframe? Oh that’s right, 20 years and we are still waiting for a regional hospital on the North Island. In your editorial, you stated that having a choice violates the Canada Health Act, “yet there it is and everybody acts like it isn’t."I would argue that our current system more seriously violates the Canada Health Act, as there it isn't and everybody acts like it is.Barbara Mellin, RN,Comox