While individual states from California to New Mexico discuss ways to introduce more government to the health care sector, Canada, on the other hand, is desperately trying to open its socialized system up to free market forces.

The latest example is Quebec, normally one of the last provinces to adopt market reforms, where Liberal health minister Claude Castonguay concluded that Quebec can no longer sustain the annual growth in health-care costs.

In a new report, provocatively titled "Getting Our Money's Worth" and detailed in today's Toronto Star the report's recommendations were discussed as an unavoidable means of "adapting to today's realities."

Recommendations included: 

• A new tax, including a "health-care deductible" based on income and the number of visits made to a doctor's office or hospital in a calendar year. Low-income families and children would be exempt.
• Encouraging private-sector involvement in the management of hospitals and medical clinics.
• Lifting a ban that prevents doctors from practising both in the public system and privately.
• Raising the provincial sales tax by up to one percentage point.

Clearly, Canada's experiment with socialized health care is on the verge of failure. It would seem wise for states and candidates for high offices to take a close look at the problems being had by our neighbors to the north before attempting "universal coverage" schemes.