Health Care

— May 2, 2024
Printer-friendly version

The Private Cost of Public Queues for Medically Necessary Care, 2024 finds that long waits for surgery and medical treatment cost Canadians almost $3.5 billion in lost wages and lower productivity last year, with an estimated 1.2 million patients waiting for medically necessary treatment in 2023, and each losing an estimated $2,871 (on average) during working hours.

— Apr 12, 2024
Printer-friendly version
Time to Reform the Canada Health Act

Time To Reform the Canada Health Act is a new essay, part of the Institute’s series on federal policy reforms, that highlights how the act has led to poor performance and high costs in provincial health-care systems, and suggests reforms that would allow the provinces to provide better universal health care.

— Jan 16, 2024
Printer-friendly version
The Role of Private Hospitals in Australia’s Universal Health Care System

The Role of Private Hospitals in Australia’s Universal Health Care System is a new study that finds Australia spends slightly less than Canada on its universal health care, but routinely outperforms Canada on key health indicators. It also delivers universal health-care differently by including a large role for private hospitals, with 41 per cent of all hospital care being delivered in private hospitals in 2021/22.

— Dec 7, 2023
Printer-friendly version
Waiting Your Turn: Wait Times for Health Care in Canada, 2023 Report

Waiting Your Turn: Wait Times for Health Care in Canada, 2023 is an annual survey of physicians across Canada, finding a median wait time of 27.7 weeks—the longest ever recorded—with national wait times longest between a referral by a GP and plastic, orthopaedic, and neurosurgery, while shortest for radiation and medical oncology treatments.

— Nov 16, 2023
Printer-friendly version
Comparing Performance of Universal Health Care Countries, 2023

Comparing Performance of Universal Health Care Countries, 2023 is a new study that compares 30 universal health-care systems in developed countries, finding that Canada has fewer doctors, hospital beds, MRIs, and longer wait times than comparable countries—despite ranking in the top third for spending.

— Oct 10, 2023
Printer-friendly version
Mental Health Care: How is Canada Doing?

Mental Health Care: How is Canada Doing? compares Canada’s mental health services to other countries with universally accessible health care and finds that, despite the Canadian government spending a larger share of health dollars on mental health services, Canada has relatively fewer psychiatric care beds (ranking 22nd out of 28 nations), psychiatrists (ranking 16th out of 28 nations), and psychologists (ranking 15th out of 26 nations) in addition to growing wait times.

— Sep 26, 2023
Printer-friendly version
Lessons from the Public-Private Partnerships in Surgical Care in Quebec

Lessons from the Public Private Partnerships in Surgical Care in Quebec finds that private surgical clinics play an increasingly large role in Quebec’s universal health care system, following a 2006 Supreme Court ruling that allows private surgical clinics to perform select surgeries covered by the Quebec health-care system. In fact, private surgical clinics now perform 1-in-6 government-funded day surgeries in the province.

Subscribe to the Fraser Institute

Get the latest news from the Fraser Institute on the latest research studies, news and events.

Research Experts