Nearly 2,000 Ontario Nurses Work in Michigan

  • New research by SecondStreet.org shows nearly 2,000 Ontario nurses regularly commute to work in Michigan’s health care sector

CALGARY, AB: SecondStreet.org released a new report today that calculated there are an estimated 1,887 Ontario nurses who regularly commute to Michigan for work. This represents a significant opportunity for public and private health care providers in Ontario to recruit staff.

After obtaining contact information for 3,016 licensed nurses in Michigan with Ontario mailing addresses, SecondStreet.org surveyed them to determine how many actually live in Ontario and work in Michigan. Findings from the research showed 1,887 Ontario nurses regularly commute to Michigan for work.

“There’s a big opportunity for government-run hospitals to improve and convince some of these nurses to work in the public system, but new private surgical clinics can also give these workers more choices in terms of where to work,” said SecondStreet.org President Colin Craig. “Compensation was a factor for why many nurses decided to work in Ontario, but a majority couldn’t find the type of work they were looking for or didn’t like the working conditions.” 

The survey was conducted between February 25 to March 5, 2023 and 462 nurses responded for a margin of error of ±4.2%. Findings from the research include:

  • 3,016 Ontario nurses currently have active nursing licenses in Michigan. Approximately 63% (1,887) of those nurses currently work in Michigan. Many of the others have retired or currently work in Ontario.
  • 8.2% (248) of the nurses indicated they would like to work in the U.S. in the future.
  • The most common reasons why Ontario nurses indicated they decided to work in Michigan were: “availability of work” (30%) followed by “compensation” (25%) and “working conditions” (23%). Many noted they were seeking full-time positions while only part-time positions were available in Ontario. 
  • The most common reasons why these nurses might consider working in Canada include: if they were offered better compensation (68%), better scheduling options (49%) and working conditions (27%). (This question was open-ended so some participants noted multiple reasons.) 

While the Windsor Regional Hospital has recently implemented signing bonuses to attract nurses, these results clearly show that there’s much more to the problem than money.

“We’re looking into how many Canadian nurses and doctors currently work in other states along the border,” added Craig. “I suspect there is a sizeable opportunity for government hospitals and private clinics in Canada to convince more health care workers to work in our country instead of crossing the border.”

To view Policy Brief: Nearly 2,000 Ontario Nurses Working in Michiganclick here.

To download the survey results – click here. 

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Prevention – reduce demand in the first place

If Canadians lived healthier lives, we could reduce demand for emergency services, orthopaedic surgeries, primary care and more. 

For instance, if you visit the Canadian Cancer Society’s website, you’ll read that “about four in ten” cancer cases are preventable. The Heart and Stroke Foundation notes that “almost 80 percent of premature heart disease and stroke can be prevented through healthy behaviours.” A similar number of Diabetes cases are also preventable. 

Many joint replacements and visits to ERs and walk-in clinics could also be avoided through healthy living. 

To be sure, not all health problems can be avoided through healthy living – everyday the system treats Canadians with genetic conditions, helps those injured in unavoidable accidents and more.  

But there is an opportunity to reduce pressure on the health care system through Canadians shifting to healthier lifestyles – better diets, more exercise, etc. 

To learn more, watch our Health Reform Now documentary (scroll up) or see this column. 

Partner with non-profits and for-profit clinics

European countries will partner with anyone who can help patients. 

It doesn’t matter if it’s a non-profit, a government entity or a private clinic. What matters is that patients receive quality treatment, in a timely manner and for a competitive price.  

In Canada, governments often delivery services using government-run hospitals instead of seeing if non-profit or private clinics could deliver the services more effectively. 

When governments have partnered with non-profit and private clinics, the results have often been quite good – Saskatchewan, Ontario and British Columbia are just a few examples of where partnerships have worked well. 

Canada should pursue more of these partnerships to reduce wait times and increase the volume of services provided to patients.  

To learn more, watch our Health Reform Now documentary (scroll up) or see the links above. 

Make cross border care more accessible

In Canada, citizens pay high taxes each year and we’re promised universal health care services in return. The problem is, wait times are often extremely long in our health system – sometimes patients have to wait years to see a specialist or receive surgery. 

If patients don’t want to wait long periods, they often have to reach into their own pocket and pay for treatment outside the province or country. 

Throughout the European Union, we also find universal health care systems. But a key difference is that EU patients have the right to go to other EU countries, pay for surgery and then be reimbursed by their home government. Reimbursements cover up to what the patient’s home government would have spent to provide the treatment locally. 

If Canada copied this approach, a patient waiting a year to get their hip operation could instead receive treatment next week in one of thousands of surgical clinics throughout the developed world. 

Governments benefit too as the patient is now back on their feet and avoiding complications that sometimes come with long wait times – meaning the government doesn’t have to treat those complications on top of the initial health problem. 

To learn more, watch our Health Reform Now documentary (scroll up) or this shorter video. 

Legalize access to non-government providers

Canada is the only country in the world that puts up barriers, or outright bans patients from paying for health services locally. 

For instance, a patient in Toronto cannot pay for a hip operation at a private clinic in Toronto. Their only option is to wait for the government to eventually provide treatment or leave the province and pay elsewhere. 

Countries with better-performing universal health care systems do not have such bans. They allow patients a choice – use the public system or pay privately for treatment. Sweden, France, Australia and more – they all allow choice. 

Why? One reason is that allowing choice means some patients will decide to pay privately. This takes pressure off the public system. For instance, in Sweden, 87% of patients use the public system, but 13% purchase private health insurance. 

Ultimately, more choice improves access for patients. 

To learn more, watch our Health Reform Now documentary (scroll up) or watch this short clip on this topic. 

Shift to funding services for patients, not bureaucracies

In Canada, most hospitals receive a cheque from the government each year and are then asked to do their best to help patients. This approach is known as “block funding”. 

Under this model, a patient walking in the door represents a drain on the hospital’s budget. Over the course of a year, hospital administrators have to make sure the budget stretches out so services are rationed. This is why you might have to wait until next year or the year after for a hip operation, knee operation, etc. 

In better-performing universal health systems, they take the opposite approach – hospitals receive money from the government each time they help a patient. If a hospital completes a knee operation, it might receive, say, $10,000. If it completes a knee operation on another patient, it receives another $10,000. 

This model incentivizes hospitals to help more patients – to help more patients with knee operations, cataract surgery, etc. This approach also incentivizes hospitals to spend money on expenses that help patients (e.g. more doctors, nurses, equipment, etc.) rather than using the money on expenses that don’t help patients (e.g. more admin staff). 

To learn more about this policy option, please watch our Health Reform Now documentary (scroll up) or see this post by MEI.