It’s worth noting that there’s been a shortage of doctors in Canada for decades now. The root of the problem is that to become a doctor, you need to complete a residency program. But, the number of residency slots is set extremely low. That means that there are a lot of med school graduates who never get into a residency program, and eventually have to do something other than becoming a doctor.
You would think that you could get around this by moving to Canada with an MD and years of experience. But, frequently foreign experience isn’t counted as being on par with Canada’s system, so foreign doctors need to do a Canadian residency. That means they compete with Canadian med school graduates to get into the same residency programs.
Why aren’t there more residency slots? Part of it is political, many provincial governments want to shrink the healthcare budget, so by limiting the supply of doctors they limit the size of the healthcare budget. But, there are also indications that the doctors also don’t want the competition, and lobby the government to limit the number of residency spots it pays for, and by doing that, limits the number of doctors.
So, doctors may be trying to move to Canada, but unless something changes, they might not be able to practice medicine here.
It’s just as difficult in the USA, to foreigners can’t become one either as easily, they need to do some program. And they also don’t look kindly on med schools in some countries as equivalent, making it more convoluted. USA also limits Medical licenses to ensure doctor salaries are not lowered from too much MD supply., and many places are shortaged like crazy. There’s 2 additional things making things worse, equity firms and teledoc companies that snatch up doctors
But, there are also indications that the doctors also don’t want the competition, and lobby the government to limit the number of residency spots it pays for, and by doing that, limits the number of doctors.
It’s this. It’s been the tactic of medical associations in different countries (e.g. US, etc) to work to administratively or legally limit the residency and make it difficult for foreign doctors to practice here to keep their salaries up.
Supply management. The cause of, and solution to, all of Canada’s problems.
See, the Coramoor gets it.
Ease up on these requirements and charge astronomical prices to American medical tourists who are inevitably coming to your county for healthcare.
What are they going to do? Go to an American doctor who might have gotten their degree from Bumfuck medical college, Cattleville?
Everyone wins! (Except Americans, but that’s a given at this moment).
Not just the doctors, but the women and the children too
Huh? Many doctors are women. (And some of the residents appear to be children, when you’re my age.)
Yup, a majority of biology majors are woman, they are usually a pipeline to MDs, nurses,health industry leaders. And they often have an easier time finding jobs in bio then men,( alot of factors why though)
I think that’s a reference to Attack of the Clones.
Thanks. Like I said, I’m old. And I have seen all three Star Wars movies. No wonder I didn’t get it.
all three Star Wars movies
Lol. Yeah, that’s probably a good decision.
Did some searching online… In the USA, the average salary for a General Practice Physician (according to salary.com) is $234,090 (USD); according to Indeed it’s $218,056 (USD) per year. In Canada, the median annual salary for a General Practitioner (GP) is $227,218 (CAD).
So not exactly at par but probably likely still attractive. When you factor in the political climate, I can see how some may choose to move here.
https://www.ifitweremyhome.com/compare/US/CA
On average, you’d make 19% less money. But you’d spend 35% less on health care. Oh, and you’ll be 63% less likely to be murdered.
And 90%+ less likely to be grabbed off the street by plainclothes Nazis and sent to a concentration camp…
Never forget the cost of admin staff. It can be many times as many people in America because of the convoluted healthcare labyrinth.
Can attest as I am part of said labyrinth. My job is mostly stable, but I truly feel it’s not necessary in the grand scheme of things and I’d gladly give up my job if I knew we could all have universal health care. For reference, I’m a graphic designer deep down in the medical system and so far removed from anything useful that they continually have to remind us of our “usefulness” and say things like “it can be easy to lose sight of our greater impact”. Bro I make power points that help the sales team sell services to different states and/or buy up smaller med companies. How the hell is this helping the lady over there afford breast cancer treatment?
You’re forgetting about the exchange rate. It’s more like 220kish USD vs 170Kish USD
Exchange rate? If you’re not in the US and not importing goods from the US, that’s meaningless.
Things in Canada tend to cost more in Canadian dollars than they do in the states, roughly in proportion to the USD to CAD exchange rate.
Then you need to compare salary to something like CPI. What can the money buy?
Well, for $3 you can buy a dozen eggs in Canada….
Too soon.
We paid $4 yesterday and I was angry
And national healthcare.
Public health care I hope…screw private
Isn’t it mostly Americas public sector that’s getting purged?
Which inturn is less money the masses have, which results in less spending, which results in private laying off, which snowballs. But yes.
I was mostly hoping that the migrating doctors would already be on the wagon with universal healthcare.
There must be a reason why there aren’t enough Canadian doctors. If that isn’t resolved, getting more doctors and medical staff from the US is just going to be a stop-gap solution. It might actually convince politicians that “nothing is wrong” and reduce or eliminate their willingness to fix the existing problems.
Could somebody explain why Canada has a doctor’s shortage? And maybe also how they imagine it should be addressed?
It’s been common for a while for Canadian doctors to move to the US because they can make higher salaries. I suspect part of the shortage is “brain drain”, but also, COVID news coverage has really highlighted the working conditions to the public, so that could be making potential students reconsider.
I saw a video about a Canadian doctor ending her practice because it was too expensive operating her clinic, and she wasn’t earning enough to pay herself or the staff, even though she was only on a 200k CAD, people assume she was living well off,.but the cost of operating a clinic is too expensive. Also she has to deal with the Canadian government Everytime she sees a patient, change in meds, care, equipement
Its annoying as the AMA fought universal healthcare for so long, but that was the older generation of doctors.
