Before I retired, I worked for the Ministry of Health responding to constuency requests. While many of them were people trying to get around the eligibility rules, some were truly heart breaking. One was for a Canadian woman who had married a US man and had moved to his home country. After numerous beatings (apparently, it takes at least 25 abuses before a women acts to stop the abuse), she fled back to Canada for treatment and family. However, Canada's health eligibility rules state that one must be in the country, regardless of citizenship, for three months before one is eligible for coverage. This poor young woman had received urgent medical care and was being looked after by a social worker, but was being asked to pay for the expensive care with money she certainly didn't have, as she had fled only with clothes she wearing that day. I was able to backdate her eligibility so that she could begin her life again without fear.