More Than 105,000 Canadians Sought Medical Treatment Abroad Last Year: Report

A paramedic wheels a gurney out from the emergency department at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto on Jan. 13, 2021. The Canadian Press/Cole Burston

More than 105,000 Canadians left the country for medical treatment in 2025, according to a new report.

The report by the Fraser Institute surveyed physicians across the country who work in 12 major specialties, including gynecology, general surgery, neurosurgery, cardiovascular surgery, and radiation oncology, to determine how many patients left the country in search of health care.

The specialists were asked what percentage of patients received non-emergency medical care outside of Canada in the past 12 months. Based on the results, the Fraser Institute calculated the number of patients seeking health care outside of Canada.

The report estimates that about 105,529 Canadians went overseas for medical treatments last year, but says that number could be an underestimate, according to authors Mackenzie Moir, Nadeem Esmail, and Yanick Labrie.

“These numbers are based on specialist responses, which means that patients who leave Canada without consulting a specialist are not likely to be included in the count,” they wrote.

The survey found that 3.7 percent of urology patients sought such care outside of Canada, accounting for more than 12,000 patients. More than 10,000 Canadians sought general surgery outside of the country, followed by an estimated 8,300 for internal medicine.

Ontario saw the largest number of residents seek medical care outside of the country, at 51,538, followed by B.C. at 25,698, and Alberta at 13,919.

The authors said the numbers were not “insubstantial,“ adding ”they point to a sizeable number of Canadians whose needs and health-care demands could not be satisfied in a reasonable time within Canada’s borders.”

The authors said there could be several reasons Canadians leave, including lack of available resources or procedures unavailable in the public system, choosing more advanced health care facilities, or long wait times, which can lead to a worsening of the condition.

“In 2025, patients could expect to wait 13.3 weeks for medically necessary treatment after seeing a specialist,” the report said, adding it was almost 4.5 weeks longer than what physicians would consider a clinically “reasonable” wait time, which is 8.8 weeks.

The authors said that some patients may have left Canada to avoid adverse medical consequences of waiting for care, while others were looking to avoid delay and get back to “normal life” faster.

“That a considerable number of Canadians travelled abroad and paid to escape the well-known failings of the Canadian health-care system speaks volumes about how well the system is working for them,” the authors concluded.

Health Care Wait Lists

One report released in September 2025 estimated nearly 6 million Canadians were on a health care waitlist.

Think tank SecondStreet.org used government data for its analysis, finding that at least 3.7 million people were waiting for surgery, a diagnostic scan, or a specialist appointment.

The report said the number was “certainly an underestimate” as provincial government data is often incomplete. Calculations by the organization put the true number at 5.8 million, or about one in every eight people.

The think tank has also estimated that more than 23,000 Canadians died while on a health-care wait list in the 2024–2025 fiscal year.

SecondStreet.org president Colin Craig said it was a 3 percent increase from the previous year.

Jennifer Cowan contributed to this article.