Would you cross the border for health care? 42% Canadians say yes in poll

Amid Canada's ongoing battle with prolonged emergency room wait times and staffing challenges, a poll finds that many are willing to head south in pursuit of timely health care.

Amid Canada’s ongoing battle with prolonged emergency room wait times and staffing challenges, a new poll finds that many are willing to journey southward in pursuit of timely health care, even if it means paying out of pocket.

The Ipsos poll conducted exclusively for Global News found that 42 per cent of respondents would go to the United States and personally pay for more routine health care if needed. That is up 10 percentage points compared with January 2023.

And 38 per cent of respondents said they would travel to the U.S. and personally pay for emergency care (up nine points from a year ago).

“I think the increase is happening because of the increasing level of frustration that Canadians have in the health-care system,” Sean Simpson, vice-president of Ipsos Public Affairs, told Global News.

“It’s not the quality of care that that people are upset about, it is the timely access to care, meaning wait times in emergency rooms, wait times to see specialists, to get appointments, for screening. As a result, we have a significant chunk of the population say if they can get that service elsewhere, such as the United States, they may consider doing so.”

The Ipsos polling comes as provinces continue to struggle with shortages of family physicians, escalating wait times for surgeries and escalation of emergency room backlogs.

A significant portion of the health-care pressure stems from the remnants of the pandemic, Simpson said.

“Since the pandemic, we’ve seen the health-care system was in many respects, holding on by a thread. And that thread is continuing to unravel,” he said.