Nearly 60 Percent of Canadians Support Health Care Reform, Private Care Options: Poll
Jennifer Cowan
11/17/2025|Updated: 11/17/2025
Nearly six in 10 Canadians support reform of the country’s public health-care system, including use of private clinics when patients face delays in receiving timely care, a new survey suggests.
Think tank SecondStreet.org, in partnership with Leger, polled more than 1,600 adults nationwide on five health-care reform options, based on the experiences of other “better-performing” universal health-care systems around the world, including those in Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands, France, Australia, Germany, and Japan, said the report detailing the findings.
“Overall, these numbers are similar to past public opinion research, namely by showing that the public generally supports moving forward with reform that allows for more choice in terms of options available to patients and the structure of the system itself,” said authors SecondStreet.org president Colin Craig and research director Bacchus Barua.Funding for Private Clinics
The poll found that 59 percent of Canadians support government funding for non-government clinics to offer services to reduce wait times for patients within the public system, an approach that was adopted by numerous provincial governments during the pandemic to alleviate backlogs.
Twenty-three percent expressed opposition to funding private clinics and 18 percent were undecided.
The highest level of support for this option came from older Canadians and women.
Sixty-four percent of Canadians 55 and older expressed support for government funding for non-government clinics, compared to 57 percent of those in the 35 to 54 age range, and 53 percent of individuals aged 18 to 34.
Meanwhile, 62 percent of women expressed their support for this type of system compared to 55 percent of men.
Support was 50 percent or higher across the country, but Quebec respondents were the most enthusiastic about funding private clinics. Sixty-eight percent of Quebecers favoured this policy, closely followed by Atlantic Canadians at 62 percent. Residents of B.C. were the least inclined to endorse this type of funding model, with 51 percent voicing support.
Commenting on the high level of support in Quebec, the report’s authors noted that specialized medical centres have been regularly used in the province since 2005, when the Supreme Court of Canada struck down a Quebec law prohibiting private health insurance for services covered by the public system. These specialized medical centres offer special services such as diagnostic imaging or medical consultations with specialists.
Mixing Public and Private
An additional 59 percent of Canadians surveyed favour maintaining the public system while also permitting patients to use their own money, or their extended health insurance, to pay for services at private clinics if they are unable to receive timely publicly funded care.
Twenty-eight percent said they opposed this model and 14 percent were undecided.
This option exhibited a smaller divide between gender and age demographics. Sixty-one percent of Canadians 55 and older expressed support, in contrast to 57 percent of those aged 54 and younger. Support levels among women and men were recorded at 59 percent and 58 percent, respectively.
Once more, Quebec emerged as the region most inclined to support this model, with 65 percent of respondents in favour compared to the national average of 57 percent.
National numbers are down overall compared to surveys in 2022 and 2024, however, when 62 percent and 61 percent respectively supported patients having the option to pay out of pocket.
Hospital Funding Models
Respondents were also asked whether hospitals should be compensated throughout the year based on the services they provide, or if they should receive a cheque at the beginning of the year.
“Under such a system… a hospital might receive, say, $15,000 each time it provides a knee operation, or $25,000 if it provides a hip operation,” the authors said. “This modern approach is used by the vast majority of universal health care systems around the world, particularly in Europe, and incentivizes health providers to help more patients.”
The poll found 56 percent of Canadians said hospitals or clinics should be paid each time they deliver a service throughout the year, with the funding matching the complexity of the service. Twenty-three percent opposed this type of model and 22 percent expressed uncertainty.
This option was supported by a majority of respondents across Canada, encompassing all age demographics and both genders, the poll found.
Regional support was highest in Ontario at 57 percent, and lowest in Manitoba and Saskatchewan at 53 percent. The pay-per-service option also enjoyed slightly higher support among older Canadians with 59 percent of those older than 55 in favour compared to 53 percent of respondents in the 54 and younger age group. Men and women were almost equally in favour, at 56 percent and 55 percent, respectively.
Healthy Living Bonus
The poll also asked Canadians about the idea of governments offering financial incentives to promote healthy living.
Fifty percent of respondents supported the introduction of such incentives. Among the provinces, Alberta showed the highest level of support at 57 percent, followed by Quebec at 53 percent. In contrast, Ontario had a lower support rate of 47 percent, and Atlantic Canada reported the least support at 42 percent.
Those aged 55 and older were the age demographic most inclined to oppose health incentives provided by the government.
User Fees
User fees are a common feature of universal health systems around the world, but Canadians largely do not support implementing such a system domestically, the survey found.
Under this scenario, patients who receive health-care services would pay a small portion of the bill with the balance being financed by either a government plan or private insurance companies. One example of this type of system would be following Japan’s model by contributing $28 for a consultation with a family physician, with exemptions for vulnerable populations.
Fifty-five percent of Canadians polled said they opposed this policy option, while 30 percent were supportive, and 15 percent were undecided.
Opposition was most pronounced at 61 percent within the poll’s middle-income category of $60,000 to $100,000 but older Canadians were also more likely to oppose this model compared to younger age groups.
“Despite the widespread adoption of user fees in other more successful universal health care systems, the results are not terribly surprising as the cost of living continues to be the issue of top concern in Canada,” the authors said. “Even when defining ‘small user fee’ as a charge of $10 per patient visit with a doctor (up to a maximum of $100 per year), there was still strong opposition.”
Fifty-nine percent of those surveyed indicated their opposition to a $10 charge for each visit to their family physician, with a cap of $100 annually. Thirty-two percent said they would be willing to pay the charge and 9 percent were undecided.
Men, Quebecers, and those with household incomes of $100,000 or more were more likely to find this fee acceptable while women and those making less than $100,000 annually were more likely to view it as unreasonable. |
