Brain drain reversed: U.S. doctors coming to Canada

Bucking a troubling trend of a decade ago, there is now a net movement of doctors from the U.S. to Canada.

Uncertainty over U.S. health reform, a complicated U.S. health bureaucracy, and the prospect of better pay are luring more U.S. doctors north of the border than at any time in the past fifteen years. Five years ago 10 per cent of Canadian-trained doctors were working the U.S., prompting Canadian legislators to increase doctor fees. Now MDs practicing in Canada get paid more in some specialties than in the U.S., and don’t have to deal with the complicated insurance bureaucracy that sometimes forces U.S. doctors to deal with 40 different companies in order to get paid. Ontario recruited 87 doctors from the U.S. last year, compared to only ten in 2007.