The Canadian Health Care System: Views and Experiences of Adults with Health Problems

The Commonwealth Fund 2002 International Health Policy Survey finds that one of four Canadians with health problems believes that the quality of care in their country has deteriorated in the past two years— higher proportion than found for sicker adults in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. This five-nation survey further found that Canadians with health problems were more concerned than their counterparts in the other countries about access to specialist physicians, with more than half saying it is “very difficult” or “somewhat difficult” to see a specialist when needed.