True Patriot Love - 105,000 Canadians Left Canada for Healthcare. Why？

00:00:00.000 in canada the current benchmark for wait time for knee or hip surgery is 26 weeks or six months for

00:00:12.300 a lot of people they're not willing to wait that long they'd rather pay money to go to a private

00:00:16.800 clinic or pay money and travel overseas and go abroad to get a procedure done to talk more about

00:00:22.620 it thrilled to be joined by mike wixon mike how are you you know as the years go on jim and the

00:00:27.960 pain sets in in certain spots i can see that potentially a knee or hip surgery could be in my

00:00:34.640 future for a lot of people as a matter of fact a buddy of mine i'm going to start playing hockey

00:00:39.740 tomorrow afternoon he can't play for the next while he just had knee surgery so for a lot of

00:00:45.600 canadians once you get over the age of 50 the prospect of getting a knee procedure or hip

00:00:50.760 procedure is the percentages are quite high even it's not just from injury but just wear and tear

00:00:56.300 and time, and sometimes that joint needs to be fixed.

00:00:59.520 Yeah, it's not my fault for not staying physically fit.

00:01:03.820 And so, but it's interesting.

00:01:06.100 A couple of things that I'll note before we go down this road,

00:01:10.000 both a knee replacement neighbor and a hip replacement neighbor on my street.

00:01:15.880 And I will tell you, the recuperation time on these surgeries is absolutely remarkable.

00:01:21.780 Yeah.

00:01:21.880 I mean, the technology of the orthopedic surgeons, especially with arthroscopic surgery and knees, is light years what it was 30 years ago.

00:01:31.480 And now I know a lot of retired hockey players.

00:01:34.340 They have a sort of hybrid hip surgery where it's less invasive and it's almost like a scraping of the joint.

00:01:40.680 But it's like I've heard this.

00:01:41.860 It's it's again, your recovery time, your rehab, you're back to being as close to normal as possible in short order.

00:01:49.800 So this is where medical technology is making huge strides for people who need issues with their knees and their hips, which are common joints that have problems.

00:01:57.700 I've had a family member on the wait list for a knee, and it was longer than six months.

00:02:03.320 And this has always been interesting to me.

00:02:06.400 So I think how it worked historically was there's a certain amount of budget for hip and for knee replacement surgery.

00:02:13.920 And once that budget's done, you've got to wait for the next round of money to arrive and get on the wait list.

00:02:19.540 Is that essentially what we're talking about?

00:02:22.140 Pretty much.

00:02:23.140 I mean, they have a benchmark in Canada that you should get your,

00:02:27.940 they say that 63% of knee procedures and 69% of hip procedures

00:02:33.800 are done within the benchmark of 26 weeks after diagnosed.

00:02:38.420 That's six months.

00:02:39.180 That's a lot of time with pain.

00:02:41.080 A lot of time.

00:02:42.560 And so there's two factors here.

00:02:45.060 There are a lot of people who have the means

00:02:47.660 and are not willing to wait 24 25 26 weeks because they're excruciating pain with their knee and hip

00:02:54.460 and they travel abroad and the Fraser Institute broke down the numbers and I actually you and I

00:02:59.020 were both surprised by this in 2025 over 105 000 Canadians left the country for care whether it's

00:03:07.980 surgery or some kind of treatment that's that's significant numbers a very quick favor before we

00:03:13.740 continue a large percentage of you who watch or listen to tpl media every week aren't subscribed

00:03:20.460 yet our simple commitment to you is that if you find value there if these discussions make you

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00:03:34.140 and subscribe there directly it takes just five seconds costs nothing keeps you informed so thank

00:03:41.260 you now back to the show absolutely i mean just based on our population alone that seems like a

00:03:48.700 large population of canadians are getting left in the dust when it comes to timely surgery you know

00:03:54.860 i will say this i pointed out to you before the show i have a friend that went to costa rica for

00:04:00.860 what they call the uh mommy makeover uh tummy tuck and and uh uh breast augmentation so sort

00:04:08.940 of rejuvenating her body after giving birth and and and essentially uh the result was that she got

00:04:15.660 very very sick at a huge amount of cost lost hands and feet in the process it was uh devastating and

00:04:22.540 her family actually went to costa rica to say goodbye to her that's how wow far along it came

00:04:28.780 and so this is worth considering absolutely you know there are of course the medical attention

00:04:36.380 you can get in many countries is good but it's one more risk that you're adding to it what does

00:04:41.020 it cost jim if you decide you want to do your hip or your knee in a foreign country is it a huge

00:04:47.100 endeavor it depends where you have it done uh mexican clinics were plot advertised knee surgeries

00:04:55.100 for approximately eight to twelve thousand dollars us what to get down there have the knee done how

00:05:00.940 rich are you that you can't but that's but that's a knee replacement that's not just surgery that's

00:05:04.940 a full joint replacement for instance in richmond hill ontario they just opened something called the

00:05:10.460 schroeder ambulatory care clinic and this is part of something under doug ford private medical

00:05:17.260 clinics they promised four of them uh yeah so this is number two of number four that's a good point

00:05:22.860 so um so if you wanted a hip done there it would cost you 6 500 that's the fee paid to the clinic

00:05:30.700 and then the surgeon would bill oh hip separately for his fee for his time and it needs about

00:05:36.140 fifty eight hundred dollars and for people in the queue waiting week after week month

00:05:43.180 enter month with limited mobility and pain and discomfort that becomes an option now for people

00:05:50.700 in certain parts of the country and i know advocates of the canadian health care plan as

00:05:57.660 as we know out of the public health care, are crying foul.

00:06:00.900 If it's you, if it's your loved one, and they're in agony, and they're in pain,

00:06:05.620 and there is another option, I can see why people look at plan B and plan C.

00:06:10.020 I'll tell you another example.

00:06:11.540 By the time that you're getting these operations, by and large,

00:06:14.360 you are in our age category.

00:06:16.440 In our age category, you have children that are getting married and having babies,

00:06:19.760 and life is expanding and contracting.

00:06:22.860 And so let's say that you've got a wedding coming up,

00:06:25.020 and that aligns with the availability of surgery for you you might take an option to go elsewhere

00:06:30.940 just to get that out of the way and be uh you know just being able to schedule life around these

00:06:36.540 things i used to work with someone this was about about 25 years ago and unfortunately they got

00:06:42.220 diagnosed with breast cancer and they were told by the hospital in the toronto area you can wait

00:06:48.700 to get treatment or you can go to buffalo and we'll pay for your mileage and you can start like

00:06:55.780 next week she goes well i don't want to wait so she started buffalo so she would drive every morning 0.73

00:07:00.640 to buffalo get treatment and the treatment she was doing and come back in the afternoon and do

00:07:06.060 her shift at work and this is this is the problem in canada with health care we all brag about 0.85

00:07:12.740 health care but the resources are stretched so thin the population is growing the the elderly

00:07:18.760 population is growing as you alluded to the age group anyone in the over 50 category which you

00:07:25.480 and i both are the odds are at one point we will need something done to a hip to a knee to a joint

00:07:31.940 because that's just life that's just the human body doesn't it's not infallible i'll be honest

00:07:36.560 with you jim i think my hip is anyway it doesn't matter no you start to about our age you start to

00:07:42.700 realize hey that's uh there's smoke that might be fire and i think uh exactly here's the process

00:07:49.140 pace with the clinics the the uh in ontario here and i i just learned that a lot of this is done

00:07:55.000 on the west coast as well patients are assessed and referred for a hip or knee replacement that's

00:07:59.400 number one number two surgery is done at a licensed community surgical center and clinics

00:08:05.720 must partner with a hospital and file staffing plans.

00:08:10.620 So essentially, the clinic does fall under the watch

00:08:15.000 of an associated hospital.

00:08:17.980 And then number four, OHIP covers the surgery,

00:08:20.500 and clinics receive a facility fee.

00:08:22.620 Surgeons bill OHIP separately, as you pointed out.

00:08:25.200 So here's the complaint for people who are advocates

00:08:27.920 for public health care.

00:08:29.400 They feel that these clinics are poaching and recruiting nurses

00:08:34.440 and surgeons to work there and yeah it's not wrong and not wrong and now if you look at the

00:08:39.520 the workload and the physical and mental emotional stress of nurses in hospitals in canada it's

00:08:47.600 pretty tempting if a private clinic is going to say you're going to work five days a week at these

00:08:53.520 hours in a controlled environment that is pretty tempting mike and i understand why some of them

00:08:59.260 take the offer. Sylvia Jones said, by expanding orthopedic

00:09:03.320 surgery capacity across Ontario, we're redoubling our efforts

00:09:07.480 to reduce wait times. Now, that's the provincial perspective,

00:09:11.620 right? Yeah, yeah. The Ontario government should stop the privatization

00:09:15.540 of core hospital services, says Andrew Longhurst, a CCPA

00:09:19.540 report that he put out in September

00:09:21.820 of 2026. So this is all kind of

00:09:26.380 really reactive at the moment meanwhile you know jim we need a solution and okay at the moment

00:09:35.180 we're eating our own to get the doctors to facilitate these clinics however that just kind

00:09:40.600 of opens up the door for more opportunity for doctors in canada in the regular system and

00:09:46.140 potentially in these clinics as well what we really need to focus on here is we don't not

00:09:51.080 that we don't have enough doctors that we need more doctors which was part of the call federally

00:09:55.880 speaking yes to get into the country now we are making it very easy for doctors to get in and

00:10:00.840 and uh um hopefully augment this a little bit well and then the provinces run health care in this

00:10:07.560 country so if you live in the the really populated provinces quebec ontario british columbia etc

00:10:15.720 the onus the you know the moral duty is on the premiers and the health ministers to do more

00:10:23.240 to not waste money and other things to make sure the nurses are hired are brought into the country

00:10:29.480 and the specialists and the doctors they have the stats they know about the population right the

00:10:35.240 future growth they already know the prime minister has made it clear that they're bringing more

00:10:39.140 people in right so that's more strain in health care they already know that the the population

00:10:44.760 the aging population the people born from 1970 and before they they know the numbers it's right

00:10:51.560 It's Stats Canada provides it every year.

00:10:53.700 So why not allocate the funds to make sure you have the emergency room doctors,

00:10:59.540 but the surgeons, the orthopedic surgeons, the specialists with the facilities

00:11:03.720 and the doctors and the operating room nurses so they can cut that wait time

00:11:08.140 that the benchmark of 26 weeks, why not cut it back to 12 weeks?

00:11:13.540 Hey, before we go any further, please hit the subscribe button right now.

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00:11:28.760 All right, back to the show.

00:11:30.980 Technology's lending a hand, robotic surgeries,

00:11:33.640 one-day in-and-out surgeries.

00:11:35.360 So as I point out,

00:11:36.860 the recuperation time on these surgeries is such that,

00:11:39.920 you know, I think it's better to be doing it here at home

00:11:42.020 because you'll get through that recuperation process

00:11:44.860 a lot faster into physio and back to living.

00:11:48.040 Meanwhile, if you go elsewhere,

00:11:49.160 you could be four or five weeks

00:11:50.400 and back home with complications you're not ready to handle.

00:11:52.880 And anyone I know who's had any kind of surgery like that

00:11:55.780 and I've had injuries before, the key is the rehab.

00:11:59.520 We have great rehab facilities in this country.

00:12:03.140 And so you have the surgery in Canada, in your community,

00:12:08.840 you go to the local rehab facility because the rehab,

00:12:12.200 the work you put in a rehab after the procedure plays a major part

00:12:15.960 how mobile, how much range of motion you have for the future.

00:12:19.380 It's funny that you talk about the numbers too, Jim.

00:12:21.540 You know, the numbers are the numbers.

00:12:22.740 Stats Canada.

00:12:23.680 But I take a look, 69% hip replacements are getting done.

00:12:28.460 63% of the knee replacements are getting done within 26 weeks.

00:12:33.100 We have got to stop letting a 60% to 70% average be a goal.

00:12:41.240 And like...

00:12:42.720 Or 26 weeks.

00:12:44.560 Like...

00:12:45.320 Why can't we bring that down to 12 weeks? 0.72

00:12:47.720 We need to stop accepting subpar as the status quo.

00:12:52.800 We can't make it the benchmark.

00:12:53.880 If you had 80% within 12 weeks, you're like, now we're getting somewhere.

00:12:59.060 We're making progress here.

00:12:59.680 Why do I need to go overseas?

00:13:01.660 Because within 12 weeks, I'm going to have it done in my local hospital.

00:13:05.420 It was crucial for us to find a way to not simply shift capacity from the hospital systems

00:13:11.060 to facilitate to facilities like ours, says Dr. Fabio Berlisi.

00:13:17.220 the Canadian healthcare tech.

00:13:19.240 So he makes a good point.

00:13:22.900 This was really, these adjacent clinics

00:13:27.180 are part of the answer, I think.

00:13:30.100 They aren't the entire solution,

00:13:31.720 but they have to be part of the answer to this,

00:13:34.140 especially in this one category.

00:13:36.680 Yeah, you know, there's a,

00:13:39.560 we're walking a fine line here.

00:13:42.220 It's well known that the uber wealthy in this country,

00:13:44.780 they don't wait to see a family doctor like the rest of us they usually get on their private jet

00:13:50.460 and they go to the cleveland clinic or the mayo clinic or some other esteemed private

00:13:55.120 medical facility you know there's no elbows up for the really rich they don't care they don't

00:14:01.160 go to the bolton walk-in no no they don't go to your local emergency room or walk-in clinic or

00:14:06.700 or health they don't go to caledon urgent no they don't i don't get it and it's such a good

00:14:11.180 urgent care place okay um you know so there there is that influence within the provincial government

00:14:17.240 the ford government that why don't we have private clinics here why don't we have both and they seem

00:14:22.860 to think that if we have more private clinics it takes the stress off all the hospitals now in

00:14:28.720 theory that's true but when you take the nurses and doctors and orthopedic surgeons away from

00:14:34.800 the public hospitals there's less so unless you're finding out a way to replace them that's

00:14:41.000 the one does that help the wait time that's the conundrum here that is the conundrum okay right

00:14:45.620 give us public give us private but we need more physicians we need more technicians and more

00:14:50.460 nurses and more nurses you know mri operators and ct specialists and radiologists if we can get

00:14:57.460 more of those specialists then everybody wins we need doctors to get the best effing deal on earth

00:15:03.600 to come to canada right now is what i'm hearing watch your language jim there's no need for that

00:15:07.300 No, and this is where it's, there's no right answer here.

00:15:12.780 If you say we can't have any clinics at all, fine.

00:15:16.040 Okay, right, let's bring it up.

00:15:18.200 Okay, so we're stuck with 20,000 surgeries a year, and that's it.

00:15:20.900 But then we must bring in more doctors, more nurses,

00:15:25.140 and a bigger capacity and a bigger budget for the surgeries 0.99

00:15:28.420 so no one's cut off.

00:15:30.160 So no one's told after 25 weeks we can't do your surgery this year.

00:15:33.680 You raise a good point.

00:15:34.720 Either the hospitals have to build these clinics in.

00:15:37.040 right we have to live with this well right and now that the horse is out of the barn now that

00:15:42.120 doug ford's done this in ontario and we have private clinics in other provinces across the

00:15:46.940 country they're not stopping it the provinces aren't stopping it so okay maybe in future they

00:15:52.900 can stop more from coming to be and coming online but the ones that are already in play now are not

00:15:59.540 going away let me see if i get this right we need need need need more doctors yes if we uh want to

00:16:08.940 say hip hip hip hooray yeah i you know mike i in more than that was for you nick just because i know

00:16:15.080 it gets tedious over there i am concerned about canadians feeling the need to go abroad for

00:16:22.140 medical procedure because you talked about the anecdote about your friend in costa rica you have

00:16:28.780 no idea what you're getting into in some other country it could be fine could be perfect you get

00:16:33.980 on the plane come home this is great but if something happens god forbid well then what

00:16:38.700 meanwhile you sons of guns are trying to get me to get on a plane to go to turkey to handle my

00:16:42.700 i never said that i never said that i just said that it's a popular place for men to get

00:16:48.300 air replacement how many times do you have to tell me that a week thank you so much thanks

True Patriot Love - October 15, 2026

105,000 Canadians Left Canada for Healthcare. Why？

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