Cory Morgan: Now Would Be an Ideal Time to Reform Canada’s Ailing Health-Care System

Commentary

International headlines were made when 44-year-old Prashant Sreekumar died while waiting in an emergency room in an Edmonton hospital on Dec. 22, 2025. He had been experiencing chest pain and had allegedly waited over eight hours to see a doctor before passing away. Elon Musk responded to the incident by posting on X: “When the government does medical care, it is about as good as the DMV [Department of Motor Vehicles].” Musk makes a valid point. However, it has infuriated some defenders of the Canadian system.

Access to care has reached crisis levels in Canada, largely due to the current system.

The provincial political blame game has begun. Opposition members blame Alberta’s premier for the issue, while the health minister has ordered a review of the incident. The reactions sound routine as these incidents are beginning to happen so often, and it isn’t just in Alberta. A quick search reveals that Canadians are dying in emergency rooms in every province.

In Quebec, Umberto Mastantuono died after waiting 11 hours in the Laval hospital emergency room. In B.C., 11-year-old Brayden Robbins died after waiting over five hours for treatment at North Island Hospital, Comox Valley. In New Brunswick, Darrell Mesheau died in the emergency room after waiting seven hours at Dr. Everett Chalmers Regional Hospital. In Ontario, 16-year-old Finlay van der Werken died after waiting over eight hours at Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital. The list goes on and on.

Emergency room waiting times for an initial assessment across Canada average 5.5 hours, and those needing a bed end up waiting nearly 15 hours on average. These long waits don’t always lead to fatalities, but they cause a great deal of suffering, and some injuries and conditions can be worsened by long waiting times.

Access to health care isn’t just an issue in emergency rooms across Canada. Finding a family doctor or access to quick, primary care is becoming difficult. In 2016, 46 percent of patients could get same-day or next-day appointments to see a doctor. That number plunged to 26 percent by 2023, and people could be waiting for months or years to get a regular family doctor. This drives non-emergency cases into emergency rooms.

Access to timely diagnostic and surgical treatment is hitting crisis levels, too. According to a policy paper from SecondStreet.org, 23,746 Canadians died on waiting lists for diagnostic and surgical services. Waiting times ranging from months to years impact the standard of living and productivity for hundreds of thousands of people. According to the Fraser Institute, median waiting times for health care have climbed from 9.3 weeks in 1993 to 28.6 weeks in 2025.

The access crisis hasn’t come about due to a lack of spending. In 2010, health-care spending was $5,614 per capita in Canada. Today, the amount is $9,626 per capita, representing 12.7 percent of the GDP. When compared to other developed nations, Canada ranks near the top in spending on health care—and that’s the only area where the country tends to rank on top with health care.

With measures from waiting times to hospital beds and doctors per capita, Canada lags far behind. For example, France provides universal health care and spends almost the same amount per capita on care as Canada does. France has 5.5 hospital beds per 1,000 people and 3.3 doctors per 1,000 people, versus Canada with about 2.5 hospital beds and 2.5 doctors per 1,000 people.

If the health-care access issues aren’t due to provincial management or underfunding, it’s clear that the system itself is flawed. Provincial governments are responsible for the provision of health care, but they are bound by the Canada Health Act. Provinces considering embracing health-care provision reforms based on successful universal models like Japan and France find themselves stymied due to federal provisions banning private involvement. Premiers are left with no options aside from pouring more money into the system.

Canada has turned its health-care system into a sacred cow. It has been used to define the identity of Canada and differentiate the country from its Southern neighbours. Efforts to change almost any aspect of health-care provision often draw accusations of trying to “Americanize” the system. It’s a disingenuous but effective means to stunt policy reforms.

The Canada Health Act must be reformed. If Prime Minister Mark Carney took on the task of amending the act, he would garner strong blowback from advocates invested in the status quo. Nonetheless, he could shield himself from some of the ire by reminding people that only premiers will have the authority to change provision models. The federal government just needs to cut some of the roadblocks from within the legislation and leave the provinces to choose if and how they may want to change their systems.

It’s early in Carney’s mandate. Now would be an ideal time to initiate reforms to the Canada Health Act.

Doing nothing is no longer an option.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.