Earlier this month, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau began a US-Canada economic summit designed to improve his country’s economic climate.
Canada’s political landscape is shifting. After nearly a decade in office, Trudeau has announced his resignation, with the Party leadership election scheduled for March 9. He will leave behind a country that has been grappling with a decade of disillusionment. Trudeau’s legacy will be marred by soaring taxes and a Canadian economy that many now describe as being on “life support.”
The country’s healthcare provision is the weakest part of its economy. For years, American reformers have idolized Canadian healthcare, touting it as the gold standard for universal care, and a model to replace an American system that is also broken. But the reality tells a starkly different story. In Canada, wait times are unmanageable, access to services is dwindling, and public trust is eroding. Recent data indicate that one in six Canadians lacks a regular family physician, and fewer than half can secure an appointment with a primary care provider within a day or two. This shortage has led to overwhelmed emergency rooms and significant delays in care. In 2023, more than 1.3 million Canadians abandoned emergency room visits due to excessive wait times. Some hospitals have even exceeded 200% capacity, forcing patients into hallways and onto floors.
As Americans reckon with record deficits and runaway government spending, some voices are once again touting the Canadian example as cheaper and more effective than the US system. One of the loudest cheerleaders for Canada’s model is Wendell Potter, a former healthcare executive turned activist, who has lately been painting a utopian vision of Canada’s government-run healthcare in op-eds and interviews. But like all advocates of socialized medicine, Potter is peddling an illusion rather than reckoning with the harsh realities Canadians face daily.
Consider the data. Patients in Canada often wait months for critical procedures. According to the Fraser Institute, the median wait time for medically necessary treatments in 2022 was over 27 weeks—nearly double what it was in 1993. For many Canadians, timely access to care is not a guarantee but a gamble. For patients with life-threatening conditions, these delays can mean the difference between recovery and irreversible harm.
The deterioration of Canada’s healthcare has not gone unnoticed by its citizens. Recent polls show that dissatisfaction with healthcare is at an all-time high, with many Canadians now exploring private care options to bypass the public system’s inefficiencies. Some 75% of Canadians now believe their nation’s healthcare is in crisis. “Free” healthcare costs the average citizen nearly $9,000 a year in taxes, and people who once championed Medicare are acknowledging its shortcomings.
The problems plaguing Canadian healthcare are deeply rooted in its design. A single-payer arrangement relies on the government (i.e., the taxpayer) as the sole payer for healthcare services, ostensibly ensuring universal access. But basic economics predicts two problems. First, as sticker prices fall (because a portion of the cost is subsidized by taxpayers), demand will increase. Second, as the government does not respond to market forces, there is no incentive for supply to grow.
When demand outpaces supply, as it has in Canada, the limitations become glaringly obvious. Hospitals face chronic underfunding, staffing shortages are widespread, and technological investments lag behind those of other developed nations. Despite a population of 40 million, there are only 432 MRI machines in the country. The US has more than 13,000. These structural issues lead to the long wait times and reduced access that have become hallmarks of Canadian healthcare.
Another alarming consequence of these failures is the rising use of Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID). Reports have emerged of patients feeling pressured into considering euthanasia due to inadequate access to care. Since its legalization in 2016, MAID has accounted for 4% of deaths in Canada, and some fear that systemic healthcare failures are influencing these decisions. Scarce resources must be allocated somehow; if markets can’t encourage increased supply, rationing will take place through waiting. Or worse.
Meanwhile, advocates of Canada’s model argue that the American system is broken because it prioritizes profit over care. There is certainly room for reform in the US. But US healthcare is anything but a free-market wonder (or the market dystopia condemned by its detractors). Before the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (“Obamacare”), more than half of US healthcare expenditures were already funded by various government sources. If we add a tangled web of regulations and distortions, it’s no wonder that prices are so high. No country’s healthcare is without flaws, but Canada’s current crisis should serve as a cautionary tale rather than an aspiration.
By romanticizing Canada’s healthcare system, advocates of fully nationalized healthcare gloss over the lived experiences of countless Canadians struggling to access essential care. Their narrative does little to address the failures that have led to this crisis, offering a one-sided view of American healthcare that conveniently ignores the shortcomings of the alternative.
Whether the US-Canada summit delivers meaningful solutions or simply serves as a political farewell tour remains to be seen. In any event, Trudeau’s resignation signals a new chapter for Canada, and it is an opportune moment to confront the mythologies surrounding its policies—particularly its healthcare system. Canada offers a cautionary tale of what happens when lofty ideals collide with practical realities. The cracks in Canada’s healthcare model are too large to ignore.
The lesson is clear for Americans still enamored with replicating Canada’s single-payer arrangement—be careful what you wish for. Promising universal access but failing to deliver timely care is not a model worth emulating. Canada’s healthcare crisis is a wake-up call for its citizens and anyone who believes in the promise of universal care. As Trudeau’s political legacy fades, the urgent task of addressing Canada’s failures remains. Advocates of full nationalization of healthcare would do well to shift their focus from selling dreams to confronting realities. Only then can the conversation about healthcare reform—on both sides of the border—begin to move in a meaningful direction.
Healthcare in Canada, the US, and beyond needs more consumer choice, less regulation, and better-aligned incentives—not more socialism.
Source: Canada’s Ailing National Healthcare Is Not a Model for America – FEE
