How Good Is Canada's Universal Health Care System?

"Despite Canada's high level of spending, availability and access to medical resources is generally worse than in comparable countries."

"Canada's performance is mixed, performing well, or at higher rates than the average OECD country, on about half of the indicators examined, and at average to lower rates on the rest."

"Clearly, there is an imbalance between the value Canadians receive and the relatively high amount of money they spend on their health-care system."

Report, Fraser Institute, Canada

Biologics and Biosimilars: A Primer finds that Canadian patient access to potentially life-saving biologic medicines is comparatively limited because Canada’s protection of intellectual property in the life sciences—including biology and biochemistry—lags behind other industrialized countries.

 

Canadians are justifiably proud of their universal health care system, paid through federal transfers to the provinces which are responsible for health-care delivery. It is Canadians' tax dollars that support this costly but vital service to all Canadians and residents of the country. Equal access to a comparable level of service transferable between provinces was the goal and although there are clear differences between some provinces and territories in their application of the mandated services, in general their delivery and quality satisfies most Canadians.

Yet there is ample room for improvement; starting with the fact that there are not enough physicians servicing Canadians in general practise as family doctors. And there is a clear shortage of nurses and other health-care workers. The new report issued by the Fraser Institute representing the fifth such annual critique of Canada's universal health care system, points out some of the more egregious failures pinpointed by the think tank which compares 28 developed countries with universal health-care systems to Canada's. 

The purpose of the study was to compare and analyze just how the Canadian health care system performs in comparison to peer countries world-wide. Over 11 percent of Canadian GDP is spent on health care, representing the steepest of all countries which the study included, but for Switzerland. In Canada's case, the level of expenditure does not necessarily reflect top-level medical care, despite Canadian politicians routinely vaunting the system for its excellence.

Out of the 28 countries included in the survey Canada ranks 26th for the number of physicians per capita; ahead of South Korea and Japan, lagging the United Kingdom. And its ranking is 17th comparing the number of nurses per capita; again, ahead of Slovenia and behind France, beating the OECD average, but not in the case of doctors. On other indices Canada remains a laggard; with 10.5 MRI machines per each million population, and 16 CT scanners per one million people; in comparison the OECD average is 18 per one million and 29 per one million respectively.

On the other hand, by some other measures, Canada ranks relatively well, as for example on doctor consultations where Canada scores slightly above the OECD average, and as well above average on the rate of CT scans. Behind, however, on the average on MRIs and absolute last on the rate of acute-care discharges. Ranking really low are wait times; with a mere 43 percent of Canadians able to obtain a same-day doctor's appointment when ill, giving Canada a dead last tie with Norway.

The Netherlands was at the top with close to 80 percent of patients able to book a same-day appointment with a doctor when they're sick. Wait times for a specialist appointment also gives Canada a bottom rating, with 63 percent of patients waiting over four weeks, and 30 percent more than eight weeks. Elective surgery takes Canada to a poor rating with 18 percent of people waiting four months or more for treatment. Clearly ample room for improvement.

The Private Cost of Public Queues for Medically Necessary Care, 2020 is a new study that finds long waits for surgery and medical treatment cost Canadians almost $2.1 billion in lost wages and productivity last year-costs that could increase now that many provinces have postponed elective (or scheduled) surgeries as a result of COVID-19. Crucially, more than one million Canadian (1,064,286) patients waited for medically necessary treatment last year, and each lost an estimated $1,963 (on average) due to lost wages and reduced productivity during working hours.