A plan to provide a mobile magnetic resonance imaging service for a large section of Vancouver Island sharply contrasts public- and private-funded health care.The Vancouver Island Health Authority is inviting bids to prepare sites, including electrical and mechanical hookups, for a mobile MRI unit.The mobile MRI will be operational in the Comox Valley, Campbell River, Port Alberni and Duncan by this summer. It will be offered at St. Joseph’s General Hospital in Comox as well as in trailers next to Campbell River Hospital, West Coast General Hospital in Port Alberni and Cowichan District Hospital in Duncan.VIHA is sifting through proposals that it previously invited so it can choose who will supply the equipment for the “state-of-the-art” service.This will certainly benefit people who live in or near the four affected communities. Comox Valley residents, for example, currently must travel to Nanaimo or Victoria for MRIs. Unless, of course, they have the money to spend in Courtenay at a private MRI on Ryan Road.Spend you will for the privilege of avoiding travel and government-funded waiting lists. On its website, privately owned Comox Valley MRI Services mentions "minimal waiting times."Costs for a scan generally range from $875 to more than $1,000.Contrast this with no charge for a medicare-covered MRI. The catch, of course, is that the new mobile MRI will rotate between the four communities.While existing waits should be shortened in Nanaimo and Victoria, there will naturally be some waits there and for the mobile MRI.The best argument for privatized health care is how it takes people out of the taxpayer-funded system and reduces those wait times.The best argument against it is that it creates two levels of health care – one for the wealthy and one for the rest of us.It violates the Canada Health Act, yet there it is and everybody acts like it isn’t.editor@comoxvalleyrecord.com