canadian healthcare - private insurance?

[Shadowcat]

in canada, i understand that there is private insurance for services not covered under medicare. but i think there is also private insurance for services covered under medicare but provided by a non-medicare physician. doesn't medicare prohibit reimbursement for medicare services to non-medicare physicians? can anyone explain in what circumstances it is possible to have private insurance for services covered by medicare? i'm obviously not from canada, so any help would be appreciated.

[Random Walk]

The law has been changing in Canada -- privately funded health care that competes with the Medicare system used to be more or less outlawed, but the Canadian Supreme Court struck that law down a few years ago.

Here's a Maclean's column on the rise of private health care in Canada (http://www.macleans.ca/article.jsp?content=20060501_125881_125881&source=srch)

For more background, here's a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation review of public vs. private health care (http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/healthcare/public_vs_private.html)

and this wikipedia entry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicare_(Canada)) might also be useful background info on the Canadian system.

[Shadowcat]

thank you!!!