Waiting for health care cost Canadians $5.2 billion last year: Study

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Canada’s medical wait times — among the longest in the developed world — cost Canadians waiting for treatment almost $5.2 billion in lost wages last year, according to a new study by the Fraser Institute.

The report by the fiscally conservative think tank — “The Private Cost of Public Queues for Medically Necessary Care” — estimated 1.5 million Canadians waiting for care in 2024 lost an average of $3,364 due to lost salaries and reduced productivity.

“Waiting for medically necessary treatment remains a hallmark of the Canadian health-care system and in addition to pain and suffering — and potentially worse medical outcomes — these long waits also cost Canadians time at work and with family and friends,” said Nadeem Esmail, a senior fellow with the Fraser Institute.

The calculations were based on a survey of Canadian physicians who reported a median wait time of 15 weeks from an appointment with a specialist to treatment in 2024 for patients in 12 medical specialities, including general, orthopaedic and cardiovascular surgery, internal medicine, ophthalmology and cancer treatment.

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The study says its estimate is conservative because it doesn’t include the median wait time of an additional 15 weeks to see a specialist after a referral from a general practitioner.

It also doesn’t include the value of the time patients spend waiting for treatment outside of normal working hours.

Valuing all hours of the week, including evenings and week-ends while excluding eight hours of sleep per night, the study says, would dramatically increase the cost of waiting for medical treatment to $15.9 billion in 2024, or an average of $10,266 per patient.

“As long as lengthy wait times define Canada’s health-care system, patients will continue to pay a price for lost wages and reduced quality of life,” Esmail said.

The study found patients waiting for necessary medical treatment in P.E.I. lost the highest amount of wages in 2024 — an average of $6,592 — followed in descending order by patients living in New Brunswick ($6,210); Quebec ($4,261); Alberta ($3,732); Newfoundland and Labrador ($3,674); Saskatchewan ($3,398); British Columbia ($3,101); Manitoba ($2,784); Ontario ($2,511) and Nova Scotia ($2,387).

International studies of Canada’s health-care system —  administered by the provinces with the federal government responsible for ensuring universality, portability, public administration, comprehensiveness, and accessibility — consistently find some of the longest medical wait times in the developed world among comparable countries with universal health care.