How Canadians see medical tourism

Canada is often seen as a country supplying medical tourists, but it’s risky to assume it’s a target country with huge potential. A recent survey may help explain why, says Ian Youngman.

Unlike other democratic countries, Canada does not freely allow private healthcare or full private health insurance, although confusingly it varies by province.

But staffing shortages and experiences of poor care across the country have pushed public health officials and politicians to actively search for answers to Canada’s healthcare challenges. This includes opening the debate about privatisation.

A recent cross-border analysis from the Angus Reid Institute (ARI) shows that Canadians experience more difficulties accessing healthcare and feel less confident in the system than do Americans.

Survey results

The Angus Reid Institute is a national, not-for-profit organisation that commissions research and opinion polls on issues that matter to Canadians. It has published a series of studies looking at healthcare in Canada which finds half of Canadians rejecting the idea of more private care, and another half less certain.

Specifically:

• One-in-three (32%) say that more private care would improve the healthcare system, while one-in-five (18%) say they’re not sure where they stand in this discussion.
• A majority of Canadians are concerned about the future of healthcare.
• Three-in-five (61%) say care in their community is poor or terrible currently.
• Two-in-five (39%) report concerns about bigger issues including doctor (87%) and staffing shortages (94%) and wait times for surgeries (92%) and emergencies (93%).
• Among those who say care is poor where they live, half (49%) say both the federal and provincial governments share equal responsibility, while 37% blame their province more than Ottawa.
• Those in higher income households are more likely than lower income ones to lean towards believing private healthcare could be a solution to Canada’s problems. In households earning less than CA$100,000 per year, private healthcare opposition outweighs support by almost two-to-one.

Negative media

Canada’s healthcare system has been dealing with plenty of negative press in recent months. It has been described as ‘unforgivably disastrous’, ‘broken’, ‘failing’ or in ‘crisis’.

Many Canadians have struggled with poor access or know friends or family who have received inadequate medical care. The country is dealing with a shortage of family doctors, the primary point of contact for Canadians for the medical system. Canadians who don’t have a family doctor are struggling to find one.

With this in mind, a majority of Canadians (61%) describe the current state of their local health care as ‘poor’ or ‘very poor’. Two-in-five (39%) disagree, instead describing their local healthcare system as ‘good’ or ‘very good’ with no issues

Provinces vs federal funding

In Canada, the provinces are responsible for delivering healthcare. However, there have been many calls by the provinces in recent months for the federal government to increase its share of funding the system.

The American healthcare system often acts as a comparison for Canadians when evaluating their own medical system despite the two being very different.

ARI conducted a parallel poll in the United States to gauge Americans opinions on their own healthcare system. The results showed that Americans have a much more positive impression of their healthcare system than Canadians. Three-quarters describe the state of their healthcare as ‘good’ or ‘very good with no real issues’. 24% of Americans say their own health system is poor.

Is private healthcare a solution?

As the Canadian health system struggles, the debate around private healthcare in the country has intensified.

Canadians are more likely to believe more private healthcare will worsen the medical system than improve it. Half say increasing private care will only damage the health system.

Those who have faced significant barriers to accessing healthcare in recent months are more enthusiastic about the idea of adding more for-profit care to the mix in Canada’s health system.

There has been an assumption, mainly from American healthcare groups, that opening private hospitals is the future of Canadian healthcare. But this study shows that many Canadians are not in favour of private healthcare, and this sits alongside a background of a massive antipathy from strong doctor and nurse unions, huge restrictions on private health insurance,  and national and provincial politician opposition.

Opportunities for inbound medical tourism to Canada within the next decade are almost zero. But with half of Canadians against local private healthcare, this would strongly suggest that many Canadians would in principle be against paying for private healthcare.

So, the target market of Canada as a source of medical travellers, despite huge waiting times, may be far less than proponents of North American medical tourism think.