Remember what your mother asked? “Would you jump off a cliff just because all your friends are doing it?” For too many American policy wonks, the answer is yes.

Though jumping off a cliff can be hazardous to your health, many commentators on health care prescribe a major leap into a popular abyss: socialized medicine. How often do you hear the litany? “Every major industrialized nation has national health care, except for America.” Yes, and the point is . . . ?

Canadians have prided themselves with their health care system for a number of years. It’s been very politically popular. And yet many Canadians often trek south of the border when they need a quick diagnosis or speedy and competent medical treatment. They’d rather pay cash money for good service in America than risk their lives with Canada’s snail-paced “free health care.”

So now a continent-wide poll shows that a majority of Canadians would be more than comfortable establishing a two-tier system, with both private and public medicine. Of course, Canada’s politicians aren’t talking about it. They aren’t working to establish a more workable health care system, one that actually meets Canadians’ needs. They’ve invested too much in the current system, and the prejudices that support it. Americans should take note.

Though America’s health care system is a notorious disaster, it’s less of a disaster in some important ways than the costly, regimented system promoted elsewhere. We certainly don’t want to emulate a system whose patients now contemplate an about-face, emulating our system. We can all do better.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.