Switzerland’s universal healthcare system offers far better service to its citizens than Canada’s, despite both costing taxpayers around the same amount.
According to a new study published by the Fraser Institute on Monday, the Swiss healthcare system delivers shorter wait times, better access to health professionals such as doctors and nurses and boasts overall higher patient satisfaction.
“While the healthcare needs of Canadians have expanded and evolved significantly over the past 40 years, the fundamental features of provincial single-payer systems for financing and delivering health care have remained largely unchanged,” reads the study.
“Despite a steady decline in access to care and repeated calls for necessary reforms, no significant changes have occurred since the Canada Health Act was introduced in 1984.”
The independent Canadian policy think-tank compared the two systems based on a number of metrics and found that its results concurred with those of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.
The OECD ranked Canada 36th in its list of countries with the best overall universal health care, far behind Switzerland, which came in 8th place.
“Despite its massive price tag, Canada’s health-care system lags behind many other countries with universal health care,” said Yanick Labrie, study author and senior fellow at the Fraser Institute.
According to 2022, the latest year of available data, Switzerland was home to 4.6 doctors per thousand people compared to the 2.8 in Canada, meaning they had 64 per cent more doctors available per thousand people.
Additionally, Switzerland had 4.4 hospital beds per thousand people compared to Canada’s rate of 2.5.
Where the two countries are remarkably similar is in how much they spend of their gross domestic product on healthcare.
Canada spends 11.5 per cent of its GDP, where Switzerland spends 11.9 per cent, only a marginal amount more.
Swiss people were also more likely to be satisfied with their country’s healthcare system than Canadians.
When surveyed by the Commonwealth Fund, 85.3 per cent of Swiss people reported being able to obtain a consultation with a specialist within two months.
For Canadians, that figure dropped down to only 48.3 per cent.
Ninety-four per cent of Swiss patients also report being satisfied with their healthcare system whereas only 56 per cent of Canadians were.
“Switzerland shows that a universal health care system can reconcile efficiency and equity – all while being more accessible and responsive to patients’ needs and preferences,” said Labrie.
“Policymakers in Canada who hope to improve Canada’s broken health-care system should look to more successful universal health-care countries like Switzerland.”
One key difference between Canadian and Swiss healthcare policies is that Switzerland’s population accesses universal healthcare through 44 competing private health insurance funds, unlike Canada’s single-payer public system.
“The scope of basic health coverage, imposed by Swiss federal legislation on each insurer, is very broad and includes hospital care, mental health, prescribed medications and medical devices, radiological examinations, as well as long-term care in institutions and at home,” reads the study.
“Basic insurance coverage is more extensive than that in public health-care systems in Canada, which essentially only covers medically necessary health services provided in hospitals and medically required services provided by physicians.”
The Swiss are also permitted exit options and can change their insurer twice a year if they are not fully satisfied with the services received.
As the study noted, “this puts pressure on insurers and encourages them to innovate to meet people’s preferences better and control the increase in premiums.”
“Switzerland offers valuable lessons on the potential benefits of introducing insurance competition and choice for Canadians,” it concluded.