Healthcare in Canada

Healthcare in Canada is delivered through the provincial and territorial systems of publicly funded health care, informally called Medicare.

Quotes

 * [O]nly 43 per cent of Canadians were able to see a doctor or nurse on the same or next day when they needed care… Half of them had to wait two or more hours for care in the emergency room… 30 per cent of them had to wait two or more months to see a specialist … and 18 per cent had to wait four or more months for elective surgery.
 * Austin Frakt, as quoted in "Why Canada’s ‘best’ health-care system just got ranked last — again" (11 October 2017), by William Watson, Financial Times


 * What it tells me is we're not addressing the needs of the population. We should be able to provide the services that people need in a reasonable time frame. What we need to do is create the types of system changes so that people aren't driven to pay out of pocket or seek out two-tiered care
 * Dr. David Urbach, chief of surgery Women's College Hospital in Toronto As surgical wait lists grow, Canada's private clinics cash in (Feb 10, 2023)


 * What I mainly recall is politicians telling us over and over again down through the decades that Canadian medicare is the best health-care system in the world. You don’t actually hear that much anymore. What politicians mainly stress now is that our system is better than the American. Maybe it is — though if you’re after the very latest technology and technique, it probably isn’t.
 * William Watson, "Why Canada’s ‘best’ health-care system just got ranked last — again" (11 October 2017), Financial Times