The proportion of Canadians who think the system should be completely rebuilt has jumped to 23% in 2024.
Vancouver, BC [June 6, 2024] – The perceptions of Canadians on the health care system have become more negative in the past year, a new Research Co. poll has found.
In the online survey of a representative national sample, almost one-in-four Canadians (23%) think Canada’s health care system has so much wrong with it that we need to completely rebuild it, up six points since a similar Research Co. poll conducted in April 2023.
Just under one-in-five Canadians (19%, -1) think Canada’s health care system works well, and only minor changes are needed to make it work better, while more than half (53%, -3) say there are some good things in Canada’s health care system, but many changes are required.
Fewer than two thirds of Canadians (64%) are “very confident” or “moderately confident” that the country’s health care system would be there to provide the help and assistance that they would need if they had to face an unexpected medical condition or disease. This represents a 15-point drop from the first time Research Co. asked this question, in January 2019.
This year, confidence in the health care system is highest in Ontario (68%), followed by Alberta (67%), Quebec (64%), British Columbia (also 64%) and Saskatchewan and Manitoba (also 64%). Perceptions are lower, by a significant margin, in Atlantic Canada (49%).
When asked about the biggest problem facing the health care system, 37% of Canadians (+2) select a shortage of doctors and nurses, followed by long wait times (24%, +1) and bureaucracy and poor management (14%, -3).
Fewer than one-in-ten Canadians mention four other issues: inadequate resources and facilities (8%, -1), little focus on preventive care (5%, -1), lack of a wider range of services for patients (4%, -2) and insufficient standards of hygiene (3%, +2).
“Concerns about health care in Canada vary greatly across the country,” says Mario Canseco, President of Research Co. “Quebecers are more preoccupied with long wait times (30%) than the national average, while Atlantic Canadians and British Columbians are worried about a shortage of doctors and nurses (53% and 41% respectively).”
Fewer than one-in-five Canadians (19%, +1) believe the federal government should make cuts to health care funding in order to reduce government debt.
More than a third of Canadians (35%, +2) believe health care in Canada would be better than it is now if it were run by the private sector. While only 24% of Canadians aged 55 agree with this statement, the proportions rise to 35% among those aged 35-to-54 and to 46% among those aged 18-to-34.
Canadians who voted for the Conservative Party in the last federal election are more likely to think that health care delivery would be superior under the private sector (48%) than those who cast ballots for the Liberal Party (31%) or the New Democratic Party (NDP) (21%) in 2021.
Methodology: Results are based on an online study conducted from May 20 to May 22, 2024, among 1,000 adults in Canada. The data has been statistically weighted according to Canadian census figures for age, gender and region. The margin of error, which measures sample variability, is +/- 3.1 percentage points, nineteen times out of twenty.
Find our data tables here and download the press release here.
For more information on this poll, please contact:
Mario Canseco, President, Research Co.
778.929.0490
[e] mario.canseco@researchco.ca