According to the likes of two-tier Tony Clement and his fellow worshippers at the shrine of what George Bush the elder called voodoo economics, who dream of the immense profits that market-driven health care would generate, our current system is in danger of expiring from a combination of soaring costs and bureaucratic incompetence. These number crunchers, who know the price of everything and the value of nothing, hope we'll get so fed up with the problems in our hospitals and nursing homes that we'll fall for their two-tier claptrap of top care for the few who can afford it and bottom care for the many who cannot.

If private health care were half as wonderful as its proponents tell it, Americans would have the best health coverage in the world. Instead, some 45-million Americans, who are either not poor enough to qualify for Medicaid (welfare) or not paid enough to buy private health insurance, are left without any medical coverage at all. Also, thousands of American senior citizens make regular trips to Canada to buy prescription drugs at much lower prices than they would have to pay at home.

There's no denying that our health-care system needs a huge transfusion of cash if it is to remain viable, and health-care fraud, according to Dianne Francis, editor of the Financial Post, costs Ontario taxpayers about $1-billion a year. The Ontario Nurses Association reports that drug and alcohol abuse add an additional $12-billion a year to our taxes.

While there are no easy fixes for our health care system, the government might like to consider these suggestions: a national health-care lottery; using military medical personnel to serve civilians in remote areas; giving generous grants to medical and dental students who would agree to work in designated areas for a period of five years after they graduate; expediting the licensing of foreign-trained doctors; charging hospital in-patients (low-income patients excepted) for their food at cost; and paying people who are willing and capable to care for their sick relatives at home.

When all is said and done, and we must drum this into our young people, no health-care plan, no matter how wonderful it may be, can keep us healthy so long as we continue to over-indulge in junk food, alcohol, tobacco and couch-potatoing. Our soaring health-care costs must be brought under control before the first baby boomers wake up one of these mornings and discover, much to their surprise ( it was to me) that they are senior citizens. That alone will be enough of a shock without their having to worry about paying ruinous medical bills as well.

William Bedford lives in Toronto.