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As a Hollywood stuntman, Michael Roselli once doubled for an actor playing Colossus, the towering Marvel Comics character with a literally metallic anatomy.

In real life, a simple injury to Roselli’s flesh-and-blood knee all but hobbled his booming career, making him particularly grateful when union-issued insurance paid for quick treatment by Dr. Brian Day at the orthopaedic surgeon’s celebrated private clinic.

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The veteran of three X-Men movies could now avoid a lengthy wait in the backlogged public health-care system.

But what happened next upended Roselli’s positive view of private medicine, and adds a novel twist to the heated debate over for-profit care — just as Day begins a landmark court challenge of medicare rules.

When the site of the procedure to remove loose cartilage became infected, Day’s office at the Cambie Surgery Centre simply directed Roselli to his local, public hospital, says the now-retired stuntman.