Private Matters.(ISSUES & INSIGHTS)(EDITORIALS)(Editorial)

Health Care: This page has diligently documented the horror stories of Canada's state medical system, which has been held out as the model the U.S. should follow. There's one more fact to add, but this one is promising.

Private health clinics are opening right and left, despite the fact that they are illegal. So says The New York Times, which seems to finally realize that state-run health care is cruel and unsustainable.

Given the newspaper's long tradition of promoting such programs, we marveled at its story last Sunday acknowledging that Canada's "publicly financed health insurance system -- frequently described as the third rail of its political system and a core value of its national identity -- is gradually breaking down."

But this is nothing new. For years, alarming tales have seeped across the border.

They tell of absurd waits -- often taking months -- to see a doctor; of even longer waits -- sometimes fatal -- to see specialists; of bureaucratic rationing of care; of overcrowded hospitals; of substandard care from harried professionals once patients are seen; of an exodus of doctors and nurses who find the system intolerable; of shortages of modern equipment; and of costs so high they're crowding out other public spending and squeezing the average taxpaying household for half its income.

Over a one-year period studied by the Canadian Medical Association Journal, 71 patients in Ontario died while languishing on the waiting list for heart-bypass surgery. Another 121 were more fortunate -- they merely lost their places in line because they became too sick to survive surgery while they waited.

Cancer victims fare no better. The average patient has to wait 5 1/2 weeks from the time he's referred by his family doctor to the time he's treated by an oncologist. Enough time, in other words, to die from the fright of having a serious ...