1m Canadians waiting for medical treatment at home

Long waits for surgery and medical treatment cost Canadians CAD $1.9 billion in lost wages in 2017, finds a new study by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian public policy think-tank. This could encourage more to seek treatment abroad.

For the first time, the estimated number of Canadians who waited for medically necessary treatment exceeded one million.

‘The Private Cost of Public Queues for Medically Necessary Care’, 2018 finds that Canada’s long wait times for medically necessary treatments cost Canadians CAD $1.9 billion in lost wages and time in 2017.

The study finds that the 1,040,791 patients who waited for medically necessary treatment last year each lost CAD $1,822 (on average) due to work time lost.

When including the value of time outside the traditional working week, evenings and weekends (excluding eight hours of sleep per night), the estimated cost of waiting jumps from CAD $1.9 billion to CAD $5.8 billion, or CAD $5,559 per patient.

The study draws upon data from the Fraser Institute’s Waiting Your Turn study, an annual survey of Canadian physicians who, in 2017, reported a median wait time from specialist appointment to treatment of 10.9 weeks—three weeks longer than what physicians consider clinically reasonable.

The CAD $1.9 billion in lost wages is a conservative estimate because it doesn’t account for the additional 10.2-week wait to see a specialist after receiving a referral from a general practitioner.

Taken together (10.9 weeks and 10.2 weeks), the median wait time in Canada for medical treatment was 21 weeks in 2017—the longest wait time ever recorded in the Fraser Institute survey’s history.

Bacchus Barua, at the Fraser Institute; “Canadians are waiting longer than ever for health care, and in addition to increased pain and suffering, and potentially worse medical outcomes, these long waits also cost Canadians time at work and with family and friends. As long as lengthy wait times define Canada’s health-care system, patients will continue to pay a price in lost wages and reduced quality of life.”

Because wait times and incomes vary by province, so does the cost of waiting for health care. Residents of British Columbia in 2017 faced the highest per-patient cost of waiting (CAD $2,362), followed by Alberta (CAD $2,290) and Manitoba (CAD $2,247).

With private healthcare in Canada being limited, many seek private treatment in the USA or further away.

View a detailed analysis of outbound medical tourism from Canada.