Want to know the real reason Canada’s health care system is failing?
It’s not about money. It’s about the rules shaping how Canada’s health care system actually works
Canada’s health care system isn’t failing because it lacks funding or public support. It’s failing because governments have tied it to restrictive rules that block private medical options used in other developed countries to deliver timely care.
Canada spends close to $400 billion a year on health care, placing it among the highest-spending countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Yet the system continues to struggle with some of the longest waits for care, the fewest doctors per capita and among the lowest numbers of hospital beds in the OECD. This is despite decades of spending increases, including growth of 4.5 per cent in 2023 and 5.7 per cent in 2024, according to estimates from the Canadian Institute for Health Information.
Canadians are losing confidence that government spending is the solution. In fact, many don’t even think it’s making a difference.
And who could blame them? Median health care wait times reached 30 weeks in 2024, up from 27.7 weeks in 2023, which was up from 27.4 weeks in 2022, according to annual surveys by the Fraser Institute.
Canada keeps spending more on health care but the system keeps failing.
Cutting red tape could help solve Canada’s doctor crisis
Canada’s health-care system is killing us
Canada’s MAID law is out of control and must be rolled back
Nevertheless, politicians continue to tout our universal health care system as a source of national pride........
