EXCLUSIVE: “Off the Waitlist” shows Canadians alternatives to public healthcare: book

A new book titled “Off the Waitlist” helps Canadians discover alternatives to the long wait times and poor quality of Canada’s government-run and taxpayer-funded healthcare system.

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A new book titled “Off the Waitlist” helps Canadians discover alternatives to the long wait times and poor quality of Canada’s government-run and taxpayer-funded healthcare system.

In an exclusive interview with True North, Ingrid Gahsner, a risk management consultant with decades of experience in financial planning, showcased her new book “Off the Waitlist,” subtitled “A practical strategy for Canadians who can’t afford to wait.”

Gahsner told True North that the book is geared to educate Canadians who might not realize that private alternatives are available in Canada for those who struggle to access essential medications and other medical procedures in a timely manner.

“Everybody needs to know what’s available and what options they have,” said Gahsner. “Whether they choose the options or not is completely up to them, but at least they need to know, because the politicians are never going to tell us what’s going on.”

The 217-page book, published on September 25th and available on Amazon, comes as a Fraser Institute study recently ranked Canada’s healthcare 28th out of 30 OECD countries with universal healthcare systems. Canada ranked 29th for wait times for access to care and last for timely access to elective surgeries and specialist appointments.

Gahsner says the book explores the structural issues of the public healthcare system, the reasons it is failing, and alternatives many Canadians don’t know are available to them or even legal in Canada.

“We plan for life insurance, income loss if we become disabled, retirement, estates, and to buy a house. We plan to do all of these things, but we don’t plan to pay for health care, because we’re Canadians and because we haven’t had to,” she said. “It’s something that we don’t think about, but it’s something that we need to do, because unfortunately, timely care is no longer guaranteed.”

The book explores alternatives in the private system, including international medical insurance and private clinics operating in Canada.

According to a SecondStreet.org study, at least 15,474 Canadians died while waiting for care between April 2023 and March 2024, though the think tank estimates the actual number may exceed 28,000 due to gaps in the data. In 2022-23, the organization found that at least 17,032 people died while on medical wait lists in Canada.

“Nobody should be dying on the wait list. Nobody should be waiting,” Gahsner said. “If we don’t consider lack of access to medical care and plan for it, then we might end up in a situation where we don’t have care, we don’t get what we need when we need it.”

Gahsner said medical experts have told her that, despite the long wait times for procedures and diagnostic care, there are periods in a day when MRI machines and surgical rooms are empty due to the public system being limited by provincial health budgets.

She said that though Canadians have a lot of confidence in the public healthcare system, that confidence is “misplaced” and that no amount of time and money will fix the issue. She said the issues are structural and political, and politicians lack the political will to change them.

The book invites Canadians to stop hoping that the government-run healthcare system will be there for them when they need it, like a “lottery,” and to start exploring ways to ensure that they have access to timely care in an emergency.

“You need a physical. You’re not in a rush. Nothing’s wrong with you, really. You’re okay to wait three weeks, four weeks, or two months. But you have to consider, what if there’s something a little more urgent?” she said. “What if there’s something that you need a little bit faster, and what if you can’t get it? That’s where our system fails, and it will continue to fail.”

“Off the Waitlist” contains several examples of the healthcare system failing Canadians.

Gahsner said she herself faced hurdles with the public system when she was told she had to wait a year to see a specialist when she needed her gallbladder removed. She used her private insurance and received surgery within 10 days in Canada. Despite her quick decision, the doctors told her that her gall bladder was on the verge of bursting.