Toronto 
Angus Reid Institute, an independent Canadian Research Institute, says Canadians have less confidence and more difficulty accessing health care than Americans.
The results as part of a comprehensive new cross-border study may come as no surprise to Canadians who read any mainstream media as there is a new “horror” story almost every day – from emergency room closures and doctor shortages to surgery delays.
Angus Reid Institute study finds that two-in-five Canadians (41%) had a difficult time accessing or were totally unable to access one of five key health services: non-emergency care, emergency care, surgery, diagnostic testing, and specialist appointments.
As per the report, which is the first in a three-part series canvassing opinion on access to, quality of, and policy towards health care in Canada, only 37 per cent of Canadians are confident that they could access urgent care in a timely fashion if a household emergency arises while 61 per cent are not. In the United States, 70 per cent are confident, while 25% are not.
Angus Reid Institute researchers created a Health Care Access Index to better understand a significant amount of response data. As per the index results from Canada, the smallest group – 15 per cent of the population – enjoyed Comfortable Access (approximately 4.7 million Canadian adults). The rest of the country is divided into three groups – those facing Some Challenges (31% – 9.7 million), Chronic Difficulty (29% – 9 million), and those not requiring access during this period (26% – 8.1 million).
30 per cent of Americans reported Comfortable Access to health care.
Credit: Angus Reid Institute
It is no secret that Canada has terrible wait times in accessing health care. As per the study, 72% of Canadians polled know at least one person – a close friend or family member – who received inadequate medical care in the last six months.
Credit: Angus Reid Institute
Within Canada, young people are most likely to be found in the Chronic Difficulty group, compared to their older peers. British Columbians and Atlantic Canadians are worse off in this most challenged category of health care seekers.
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While universal health care in Canada has held up as a point of pride for this nation, and a point of envy for Americans who admire it, Angus Reid says Americans are far more likely to say that services – non-emergency and emergency care, surgery, appointments with a specialist, and diagnostic tests – was either easy or very easy to access and at least two-in-five Canadians had difficulty accessing each.
Credit: Angus Reid Institute
About the paid health care system in the United States, Angus Reid finds that while access to care depends significantly on income and lower income respondents in the United States are more likely than those in higher income brackets to report facing barriers to health care access. But the report finds that despite free health care in Canada, the same is true in our country too.
About 33 per cent of those under $50 K annual income in Canada reported Chronic Difficulty in accessing health care compared to only 15 per cent of the Americans in the same category.
Credit: Angus Reid Institute
For the cross-border study, the Angus Reid Institute conducted two online surveys in August 2022. The Canada survey was conducted from Aug. 8 to 10, 2022 on a representative randomized sample of 2,279 Canadian adults who are also members of Angus Reid Canada Forum.
The US survey was conducted from Aug. 16 to 17, 2022, on a representative randomized sample of 1,209 American adults who are members of Angus Reid Forum USA.
A detailed report is given here.
