This classic study provides essential context for the ongoing debate about the funding and future of Canada's public health-care system. As the authors note in their new introduction to the WYNFORD edition, some of the haemorrhaging has stopped, but enormous challenges to the system's very survival remain-challenges that will likely intensify in an era of financial crisis and government austerity. As a result, Wasting Away remains required reading for anyone interested in the Canadian health-care experience: students, practitioners, and patients alike. Book jacket.