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Daniel for website

STORY: Manitoba Woman Dies Waiting for Surgery, Family Speaks Out

  • March 12, 2025
SecondStreet.org sat down with the family of Debbie Fewster, a Manitoba woman who died waiting longer than the recommended wait time for life-saving heart surgery.
lisa davis for website

STORY: Alberta’s STEM Charter School Success

  • February 4, 2025
SecondStreet.org sat down with the founder of STEM Innovation Academy in Calgary to discuss how charter schools improve choice in education.
steven for website

STORY: Ontario Man Left Paralyzed Due to Long Wait Times

  • October 9, 2024
SecondStreet.org sat down with Steven Cedrone, an Ontario man who blames his wheelchair-bound condition on the failures of the Canadian health care system.
melanie for website

STORY: B.C. Veteran Faces Wait for Cancer Care, Travels Instead

  • September 20, 2024
SecondStreet.org sat down with Melanie Leeson, who had to travel to the U.S. to seek care for an aggressive form of cancer.
Regan for website

STORY: B.C. Man Offered Life in a Wheelchair Instead of Surgery

  • September 19, 2024
SecondStreet.org sat down with Regan Johnson, a B.C. man who was told by the health care system that they couldn’t do anything to fix his chronic back problems. So, he travelled to Germany for care.
Laurie for website

STORY: Scottish Nurse Tries to Work in Canada, Stopped by Mountains of Red Tape

  • August 27, 2024
SecondStreet.org sat down with Laurie McCoy, a Scottish nurse who immigrated to Canada. She was more than happy to work in Canada’s short-staffed health system, but couldn’t deal with the hoops she had to jump through.
STORY: Manitoba Woman Dies Waiting for Surgery, Family Speaks Out
STORY: Manitoba Woman Dies Waiting for Surgery, Family Speaks Out
SecondStreet.org sat down with the family of Debbie Fewster, a Manitoba woman who died waiting longer than the recommended wait time for life-saving heart surgery.
STORY: Alberta’s STEM Charter School Success
STORY: Alberta’s STEM Charter School Success
SecondStreet.org sat down with the founder of STEM Innovation Academy in Calgary to discuss how charter schools improve choice in education.
STORY: Ontario Man Left Paralyzed Due to Long Wait Times
STORY: Ontario Man Left Paralyzed Due to Long Wait Times
SecondStreet.org sat down with Steven Cedrone, an Ontario man who blames his wheelchair-bound condition on the failures of the Canadian health care system.
STORY: B.C. Veteran Faces Wait for Cancer Care, Travels Instead
STORY: B.C. Veteran Faces Wait for Cancer Care, Travels Instead
SecondStreet.org sat down with Melanie Leeson, who had to travel to the U.S. to seek care for an aggressive form of cancer.
STORY: B.C. Man Offered Life in a Wheelchair Instead of Surgery
STORY: B.C. Man Offered Life in a Wheelchair Instead of Surgery
SecondStreet.org sat down with Regan Johnson, a B.C. man who was told by the health care system that they couldn’t do anything to fix his chronic back problems. So, he travelled to Germany for care.
STORY: Scottish Nurse Tries to Work in Canada, Stopped by Mountains of Red Tape
STORY: Scottish Nurse Tries to Work in Canada, Stopped by Mountains of Red Tape
SecondStreet.org sat down with Laurie McCoy, a Scottish nurse who immigrated to Canada. She was more than happy to work in Canada’s short-staffed health system, but couldn’t deal with the hoops she had to jump through.

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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.