I have lived in Canada my entire life. I have been fortunate enough to be somewhat well travelled in my adult years and this has allowed me to look at my homeland with a different and sometimes more critical lens. We have always been told in Canada that our healthcare system is one of the best in the world. That it’s “free.” That privatization would destroy the very foundations of equal access to care that this system was built upon. That everyone can go to the doctor here and we all have a fair shake if we need specialized care. Then I left Canada and used Poland’s healthcare system and realized that most of these things we have been told are not all true. There are many things we could improve upon but Canada simply just refuses to do so.
I have been in the bowels of Canada’s healthcare system unfortunately. My late first husband, Jason, was diagnosed with Stage 4 Colon cancer in December 2012. Perhaps he would have been diagnosed sooner had his primary care physician given him the colonoscopy he asked for in 2011. Instead, he dismissed him, saying he was too young (he was 42 at the time). Perhaps, Jason would have been diagnosed sooner if the first two times we went to Mount Sinai’s emergency room, they would have done full imaging. But instead, they will give a CT scan as a last resort. Our last resort was threatening to sue the hospital the third time we went back if they did not perform the imaging we asked for. Unfortunately, we were proven correct, and he had colon cancer that had spread to the liver. Of course, after this, we did not have to wait for anything. We got the colonoscopy (as if there was any point by this stage) and before Jason was even wheeled back to his hospital room, a renowned surgical oncologist was waiting for us with his team of residents, ready to explain to us what the next steps were.
The next steps were long and arduous. Surgery. Chemo. Weeks at a time in the hospital. Jason’s income went from about $90,000 a year to nothing. Then he had some meagre EI benefits briefly. Parking at the hospital was nearly $30 a day plus trying to find something to eat in their food courts. I tried to take transit when I could or walk even just to clear my head some nights. Friends and family brought us food while I spent days on end sitting in a hospital chair. We were lucky enough to live in a major centre (Toronto) with access to three of the best hospitals in Canada. I have no complaints about the care from the nursing to the oncologist to the surgeons. Everyone went above and beyond. At this point, Jason’s case was prioritized and we did not have to wait to schedule specialist appointments or surgeries. We sat in limbo briefly to wait for a bed to open up in hospice/palliative care. Jason died at Princess Margaret Hospital’s palliative wing in April 2016 at the age of 47 after three years of battling.
Was this care “free?” I did not have to pay for the surgeons, and no one asked me if I had any insurance at any time during the hospital visits. Some things were definitely not free such as Jason’s blood thinners which cost me $900 a month which “on paper” I could afford but really as I was supporting two people with my salary and Jason’s CPP disability payments I could not. Luckily, we found a loop hole to have them covered by a type of public insurance. We had a brief scare where apparently Health Canada would not cover the type of chemo our oncologist wanted to give him because Jason’s liver tumours were not big enough. You read that right. We needed to have bigger tumours for the drug the oncologist with thirty years of experience was recommending. I am thankful for that oncologist also as he told Health Canada where they could stick it and fought for his patient in this case. But he should not have had to. Does our government think doctor’s prescribe chemo drugs for fun or for patients to try out? That situation to me was insanity.
While the actual care was free, we lost half our household income, which living in Toronto was difficult. Canada has no real help for you if you are a high earner that all of a sudden gets sick or becomes disabled. At the end of Jason’s life, I had to keep working as long as I could because my alternative was to take a caregiver benefit from the government for $2500 a month until my spouse passed away. I was making over $7000 a month gross at the time, so what on earth would $2500 a month do? I also lament as to why it is so hard in Canada to get preventative care. Why do doctors fight with you if you ask for imaging or diagnostic tests? Why must one wait for months for a CT scan or an MRI only to tell them what they already know about their body? Now granted this is only my opinion based on what I have seen and experienced while living in Canada.
Contrast this to, maybe we were living in Poland at this time. If Jason wanted a colonoscopy, he could just book one and pay for it as we had the means or I may have had private insurance through my workplace. No dealing with GP’s gatekeeping, no waiting. If we wanted to see a specialist and not wait, I could simply go to one and pay the fee and go from there. The CT scan would have been the next day – we would not have had to throw a fit in the ER of a hospital to get them to confirm to us what we already knew. “But the cost is too high and then healthcare will only be for rich people!” everyone screams. Strange, because when I when to visit Poland in 2026 and decided to treat myself to see a specialist, I spent $130 CAD for the consult. When my current spouse required shoulder X-rays in 2022, we waited all of twenty minutes and got four X-rays for $40 CAD in Warsaw. This is about average across the board for major cities in Poland such as Warsaw, Krakow and Gdansk. Where is Canada missing the boat in terms of a massive fear of private healthcare options and making those options affordable for most people?
Poland’s sudden transition to a market economy took healthcare along for the ride as well and in contrast to many Western nations and Western European nations, Poland built a burgeoning private healthcare sector that has also allowed for health professionals to be entrepreneurs and run their own practices—which in turn yields broader economic benefits. The government does not get to decide what is allowed to be in this private sector, the consumer decides where they want to go and which providers they want to use. The irony here is that we are constantly told how much “freedom” we have in Canada, yet citizens cannot even direct their own healthcare decisions. A nation that was one of the poorest in Europe a mere thirty-five years ago has pulled far ahead of Canada in several respects, healthcare being one of them.
Let’s explore both systems and find out why this is so.
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