46,159 Canadians left the country for healthcare in 2011

Where are they going to go now?


46,159 Canadians left the country for healthcare in 2011. Most of them were fleeing socialized Canadian healthcare for free market U.S. healthcare. Of course, that was before Obamacare was approved by the Supreme Court. One has to wonder: where they gonna go now?

This post was last modified on January 26, 2021

J.P. Travis: Born and raised in Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1976 graduate of University of Michigan, father, grandfather, husband, founder and CEO of Travelyn Publishing (http://www.travelynpublishing.com/), and passionate anti-government believer in individual liberty.

View Comments (44)

  • Uh,

    1) No matter the system, as a friend who lived there stated, Canada sucks (it isn´t even a real country anywhay).

    2) Canada: 30s million something inhabitants. USA: +330 millions (accounting the real number of illegal immigration). Make sense that the United States have much better health-care.

  • My wife is Canadian, and before she immigrated here, she too left Canada to come to the U.S. for life-saving surgery. In Canada, the wait time for her would have been 5 years.

    Another Canadian friend, had 24 a-fib "incidents" and waited 2 years for surgical treatment. In each of the 24 a-fib cases, he was knocked unconscious and the doctors used the 'paddles' on him to resync his heart. He never came here (couldn't afford it, couldn't jump through the hoops to get OHIP to cover it fast enough). So the 46K number is a drop in the bucket compared to those who would like to come here from Canada, but can't or don't know how to do it.

    If anything, the results of this study are very modest, and barely even touch the issue of poor access to care in Canada. McCleans magazine (hardly a right wing rag) estimated that at any given time, 25% of Canadians cannot get in to see a doctor, even though they have "health insurance". Government insurance, does NOT equate to access.

    • That's terrible! We get a lot of Canadian visitors to central Florida and I was speaking with one shortly before the health care law passed who said to me, "You do not want this. Call every politician in congress if you have to, but make them understand you do not want this. It will be a disaster."

      I am glad to know your wife was able to get the surgery she needed!

    • 5 year wait for life-saving surgery...

      I have nothing to add, just wanted to repeat what should be the last words needed on the subject of socialized medicine.

  • I wonder what the statistic is for Americans zipping out of the country for access to better care? I know there are people doing it. Out of 320 million or how ever many of us are here now, the number must be big enough to notice, no?

    • I don't know the statistics for Americans going to Mexico for dentistry, but just about everyone in my dentist's waiting room is from the U.S. We keep the cabbies and restaurants busy too.

    • I'm sure there are people doing it, but it's important to remember the reasons are completely different than the reason Canadians leave the country. Canadians are fleeing a broken bureaucratic nightmare, U.S. patients are simply using the free market to find a better deal. You can get operations for pennies on the dollar in India and Thailand AND get better aftercare, but you give up the legal rights you have here. In other words, you can't sue the pants off the doctor if something goes wrong. Big whoopee. If you're uninsured and paying your own way, you should really look at worldwide options.

        • Wow, cool beans. That means I was on Doug Ross three times in two days. Twice for "They can't put all of us in prison" and once for this posting on IHTM. What I can't figure out is: why hasn't Fox News called? Bastards.

          (This is not a duplicate comment - I simply missed the "Reply to this specific comment" button.)

          • I caught the prison one too, just because we're on opposite sides of a few issues doesn't mean I won't enjoy a little vicarious pleasure in your victories. Hopefully a whole bunch of people will put aside small-change (ha!) issues and make a huge statement come November.

  • The Canadian Medicare system is neither the shining utopia that those on the left describe nor is it the smoking hole in the ground that some on the right would have you believe. Frankly, if someone has the money to get a hip replacement in the States more power to them and since they pay the full shot (no negotiations with insurance companies) they are in effect, subsidizing those US patients that can't fully pay retail. Yep, we have waiting lists for some procedures but since hip replacements seem to be the operation that is always quoted it needs to be noted that if someone's mobility is effected, the pain has adversely effected them or their quality of life has degraded they will be moved to the head of the queue.
    Medicare has been implemented in Canada since around 1972 (when the last province signed up) and is constantly undergoing change sometimes because of good ideas and sometimes because it is on the pointy end of a lawsuit but regardless it will no doubt continue to evolve. The thing to remember is that this system took ten years of research and consultations and negotiations with all affected parties before it was fully in play. Obamacare was hatched behind closed doors using bribery, guile, fraud, greed and virtually no consultation so don't compare the two.

    • The implication you're making that only hip replacements are involved in this travesty is miseleading. The wait times in Canada across the board are inhumane and ridiculous. Here is one study of wait times and here is a follow-up putting the data in a slightly different light. Many of these procedures with wait times of months are available to U.S. patients in the free market THE NEXT DAY. Think about that. When I see people popping into websites pretending first-hand knowledge of subjects but spreading completely inaccurate information, I have to wonder what their underlying motivation is. On Thursday my freedom was stolen from me by people operating on the kind of bogus information you're spreading right now, and I'm not gonna let this crap slide anymore.

      • I quoted hip replacement because that is the most common operation that is used to argue the Canadian system isn't working. If you want to play with studies I can link them as well. I'm sure that some of these procedures are available in the states the next day just as I'm sure that some insurance won't cover them or won't cover them completely leaving the patient to pay the difference. You can complain about not letting "this crap slip" anymore but if you actually understood my comment you'd see that I wasn't being critical of the US system I was stating simply that the Canadian not as bad as people such as you make it out to be.

        • "If you want to play with studies I can link them as well."

          Feel free, but you won't find any that make the opposite point. Wait times in Canada are inhumane, period. The Fraser Institute went through hell to get access to the information necessary to publish their study. The bureaucracy was playing with the numbers and resisting disclosure to hide how bad the situation is. Notice that there is an initial wait for the primary physician, then an equally long wait for the specialist appointment, THEN you get to wait for the operation you need. Meanwhile if you're older and can't walk, by the time you get that hip you'll have no muscle tone left and may never walk again in spite of having a new hip. No wonder people with money cross the border. Oh well, in two years Canadians can go to Mexico or Thailand, like those of us in the U.S. The Thais love to earn an honest buck.

      • These three - at least - traits are common between the modern countries that have implemented socialized health care;
        1 - They promised to take care of everyone.
        2 - They ran out of money.
        3 - They had to ration care due to shortages.

        When we had president and co-president clinton, co-president was somehow put in charge of taking over the enormous chunk of the U.S. economy that is health care and all the regulated money mills that comprise it. That was when, about 1993 or 94? Shortly after they were elected anyway. Somebody pointed out that she had NO business sitting at the head of a committee of the government. Had that detail been left to the wind and gone unnoticed by everybody, the radical proggies may very well have stuffed their takeover up the nation's wazoo back then. The American progressive left has been working to smash the economy since Woody Wilson.

        That Canada's people allowed their government to screw them the way they did and are still is a shame. The gun registration followed by the mandatory forfeitures of most any type of decent firearm was bad. I understand many people may not have fully complied with that defanging, but it is still the law. They're enjoying rules on speech that can result in various legal actions. There's more.

  • Good question. I've thought about this, and besides the Carribean Islands, the US Navy is about to be gutted and their hospital ships could be purchased and anchored 12 miles offshore.

  • So what, a .005% of Canadians went else where for health care. What about the busloads of senior citizens from the US who are going to Canada to buy their meds? Even the "half-term , half wit" Gov. Palin talked about going to Canada for health care. Why not throw those stats into your little article.

    • Looking abroad for a better price on your prescriptions is different than leaving your free healthcare for another country simply because your own country is either so backlogged it can't help you for months or doesn't offer the procedure at all. Duh.

      Before you defend the Canadian system, you need to realize that Canadians themselves understand they have a problem. Their waiting periods are ridiculous and there are vast areas of the country where there are no primary care doctors whatsoever. They have lotteries for doctors appointments. Think about that. Get ready for that. It's coming to a county near you.

      • I went to one of the 4/15 Tea Party rallies a couple of years ago. There was a woman who had lived in Canada and had firsthand experience with the Canadian healthcare system. She told a story of an elderly man who was denied an operation to save the sight in one of his eyes, because he was told that his other eye was still good.

        This is not the direction in which we want to go.

        • So what, is that it is symptomatic of a fundamental flaw in the system that will only get worse.

          • But that can't be! Universal healthcare is a cure all and will be like Heaven on Earth. The mainstream media told me so.

  • I actually don't think it will have an effect - the problem for Canadians is that under the Canada Health Act NO private insurance for basic medical care is allowed (including surgical treatments) and there is NO private delivery of such care (if you are a doctor doing knee replacement surgeries you are only allowed to do it through the public system - hence the wait list). Which is why Canadians, who can afford it, head south (or anywhere that they can pay for the surgery).

    Unless the US system completely collapses, Canadians will still head south and pay for the surgery rather than wait 12 to 18 months for routine procedures.

    • The problem for Canadians needing to come here will be simple-with more people insured, there will be wait-lists in the US-forcing them to go further away(NZ, e.g.).
      Mass has this problem now-with 98 or so percent on insurance, there are 3-6 months waits for specialists. That is coming to your state, my state-and the Canuks will have to go further to avoid the same long waits they have at home, and that are coming to America.

    • Once the US government has control of the health system and has the insurance companies by the huevos, there will effectively be no private insurance. There will just be different benefits administrators. And every problem that you have in Canada, and that the UK has, will be foisted upon us. And then some. Because we have a banana-republic-mentality segment of our political field, and those people somehow manage to totally destroy even the best ideas in their own sociopathic, narcissistic power/money grabs.

      • Off topic, but only a little.

        At the present moment, I have no insurance. But when I was working enough hours in my Union, I had full medical, dental, and eye care. The co-pay on my dental plan to have a tooth removed was a little over $250. I was going to get a couple removed, but my insurance lapsed.

        I did the research, read the reviews, and chose a dentist in Tijuana. Both teeth removed, $150 and out the door. And he did a GREAT job.

        In the waiting room, I met people from all over the U.S., as far off as New York. For major work, it was actually cheaper to fly from NY to San Diego, take a cab to the border, walk the ten blocks to the dentist, and have the work done there. My favorite part? Getting to have some really great fish tacos before the surgery.

        • Do you mind sharing the name of that dentist? If you go to my website, you can email me privately.

          • Both links take me to a Facebook page saying "content unavailable." Whatever that means. Maybe I can't access something you post unless I'm your friend... just one more reason to hate Facebook.

          • Ok, my FaceBook profile is open to everyone on Facebook, even if they're not my friends, but I guess if you have no account, you can't look at much of anything.

            info@bajadentistry.com

            Josefa Ortiz DeDominguez
            1310 Plaza Santa FE
            Zona Rio Tijuana, B.C.
            619-819-8671

          • Okay, thanks! They have a website: http://www.bajadentistry.com/

            And you say they've done good work for you, right? And I won't be gunned down by a Mexican cartel on the way there? 'Cause I have a deep prejudice against getting gunned down.

          • The first time I went, I was out walking around the neighborhood while my lady was getting her work done. (She had a lot more extensive work than I did, and they did a great job for her, too)

            I saw a pickup truck, sporting desert camo colors, cruising down the street, with about 8 soldiers in camo with their assault rifles standing in the back. They went up to the corner and turned left, and I noticed a lot of loud police whistling from around the corner.

            So, being the adventurous type, I followed, and peeked around the corner to see what was going on. The truck was heading for the local government offices, changing of the guard I guess. And the whistling was an over-enthusiastic crossing guard.

            A close friend of mine owns a bakery around the corner from the dentist, and he says it's not really bad at all these days. A couple years ago, he didn't like to go out at night, now he does whatever he wants.

            My lady and I always walk the 10 blocks each way, walk to the Farmacia, walk to our friend's bakery, to our favorite restaurant. If it gets dark while we're there, we'll grab a cab. Three bucks gets you back to the border crossing. We enjoy going down there.

  • As a Canadian, I feel that is an absolutely valid point. Further to that, it will likely cut off a significant source of revenue to the American health care system. My wife is waiting for a hip replacement, and I have been looking into going to the US to see if we can get it done down there as we will have to wait 12 - 18 months for the surgery up here. It's all about quality of life, and if we can afford it, her life will get better, 18 months sooner.

    I think you guys in the US need to reconcile that you will be facing the same decisions in the future, but where will you go??

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