Fraser Institute News Release: Switzerland has nearly 65% more doctors and much shorter wait times than Canada, despite spending roughly same amount on health care
VANCOUVER, BC, May 29, 2025 /CNW/ - Switzerland's universal health-care system delivers significantly better results than Canada's in terms of wait times, access to health professionals like doctors and nurses, and patient satisfaction finds a new study published today by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian policy think-tank.
"Despite its massive price tag, Canada's health-care system lags behind many other countries with universal health care," said Yanick Labrie, senior fellow at the Fraser Institute and author of Building Responsive and Adaptive Health-Care Systems in Canada: Lessons from Switzerland.
The study highlights how Switzerland's universal health-care system, which consistently outperforms Canada on most metrics tracked by the OECD.
In 2022, the latest year of available data, despite Canada (11.5 per cent of GDP) and Switzerland (11.9 per cent) spending close to the same amount on health care, Switzerland had 4.6 doctors per thousand people compared to 2.8 in Canada. In other words, Switzerland had 64.3 per cent more doctors than Canada (on a per-thousand people basis).
Switzerland also had 4.4 hospital beds per thousand people compared to 2.5 for Canada—Switzerland (8th) outranked Canada (36th) on this metric out of 38 OECD countries with universal health care.
Likewise, 85.3 per cent of Swiss people surveyed by the CWF (Commonwealth Fund) reported being able to obtain a consultation with a specialist within 2 months. By comparison, only 48.3 per cent of Canadians experienced a similar wait time.
Beyond medical resources and workforce, patient satisfaction diverges sharpy between the two countries, as 94 per cent of Swiss patients report being satisfied with their health-care system compared to just 56 per cent in Canada.
"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," Labrie said.
"Policymakers in Canada who hope to improve Canada's broken health-care system should look to more successful universal health-care countries like Switzerland."
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The Fraser Institute is an independent Canadian public policy research and educational organization with offices in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, and Montreal and ties to a global network of think-tanks in 87 countries. Its mission is to improve the quality of life for Canadians, their families and future generations by studying, measuring and broadly communicating the effects of government policies, entrepreneurship and choice on their well-being. To protect the Institute's independence, it does not accept grants from governments or contracts for research. Visit www.fraserinstitute.org
SOURCE The Fraser Institute