Universal health care is a point of national pride for most Canadians, but is it living up to its promise? With 6.5 million Canadians without a family doctor, wait times stretching to 30 weeks, and emergency rooms under constant strain, the gap between what the system stands for and what it delivers has never been more visible.
As part of our ongoing Ask the Expert series, where we put the questions keeping you up at night to the people best positioned to answer them, we asked The Honourable Dr. Andrew Furey — is Canada’s health care system broken?
Andrew is uniquely positioned to answer this as both an orthopaedic surgeon and former politician. As the 14th Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador, his bold leadership style was instrumental in guiding the province through unprecedented challenges, including a global pandemic and an antiquated health care system in desperate need of reform. Before entering politics, Andrew founded Team Broken Earth, an international medical relief charity that has delivered care in Haiti, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, and beyond — giving him a firsthand view of health systems at their best and worst.
Here’s what he had to say.
Answers have been edited for length and clarity.
Does Canada’s Health Care System Need a Reset?
First of all, I don’t think we should ever be complacent or entirely happy with a health care system. It should be a dynamic evolving system that changes with the needs of Canada as the country changes, as its citizens change, and as technology changes.
One of the reasons this question is so pertinent in modern media and the public arena is because our health care system hasn’t evolved enough. We’ve been too proud, resting on our laurels of what defines us as Canadians — to have a universal equally accessible health care system — while not really trying to understand how it should evolve with those principles and foundation in mind to meet a modern country.
The Pandemic Changed Everything
Our health care system largely hasn’t changed. The principles of Tommy Douglas and the delivery of those principles haven’t changed to meet the times. Now, there’s plenty of blame to go around in that, but what accelerated the Canadian public’s interest in this topic is the pandemic, where we saw all of the issues come together at one particular time. What do you mean we don’t have medical records? What do you mean nurses are overworked? What do you mean all of these emergency departments are overstuffed? That surgical backlogs are occurring? All of these issues came percolating to the top during what I would say is the subacute phase of the pandemic.
A World-Class System
That said, it is still one of the best health care systems in the world. I have had the incredible fortune to practice in the United States as a provider. I’ve had the fortune to travel the world to different low- and middle-income countries whether that’s Ethiopia, Jamaica, Bangladesh, Haiti, Nicaragua, Guatemala to see health care systems in their rudimentary form. I can tell you that while it doesn’t feel like it every day, and there are ways to improve as I suggested at the beginning, Canada is still an excellent place to receive care.
If you need emergency care today — emergency cancer surgery, emergency heart surgery, etc. — you will get it in a timely fashion and you will get it by the best surgeons and nurses, the best educated, the best technically skilled in the world. All without receiving a bill or the burden of having to think about how you will pay for it. Sometimes in the interest of pursuing the fix in the health care system, we lose sight of that component.
Room for Improvement
But are there ways to improve? Absolutely. Are we one of the lowest in the OECD with respect to primary care? Absolutely. But we need to make sure that we’re making smart investments to meet the needs of a modern Canada and that means modernizing and sometimes changing the way we think about the provision, development, and delivery of the health care system.
More from Andrew Furey
A passionate orthopaedic trauma surgeon and an educator with Memorial University’s School of Medicine, Andrew served as Premier from 2020 to 2025. His tenure was defined by decisive action under pressure. While his government reimagined health Care through a 10-year plan that will improve outcomes throughout the province, he was also an instrumental figure in negotiating a new hydroelectric development deal with Quebec and a $500 billion rate mitigation plan with Ottawa to help control electricity rates that were set to double.
As Premier, Andrew also developed a front-row perspective on the Canada-US relationship — navigating cross-border collaboration on energy, trade, and regional diplomacy, and engaging directly with US officials and stakeholders on issues of shared economic and environmental priority.
With his experience in energy, high-stakes leadership, and a uniquely Canadian geopolitical lens — see more of our conversations with him in the videos below:
How can Canada navigate energy needs responsibly?
How do you approach leadership in a pressure-cooker environment?
What advice for you have for organizations navigating changing geopolitical relationships?
Book Dr. Andrew Furey for Your Next Event
From the operating room to the Premier’s office, The Honourable Dr. Andrew Furey has led through some of the most complex challenges of our time — a global pandemic, a provincial fiscal crisis, and a health care system in need of reinvention. As a keynote speaker, he brings that same clarity and conviction to the stage.
Whether your audience is grappling with leadership under pressure, the future of health care, Canada-US relations, or the energy transition, Andrew offers rare insight that is equal parts medical, political, and deeply human.
Book Andrew to speak on:
- Leadership Under Pressure: Purpose, Vision, and Impact
- The Future of Healthcare
- Cross-Border Diplomacy: The Canada-US Dynamic
- Navigating Canada’s Energy Revolution
Contact us for more information about Andrew and how to book him for your next event.
