Across the country irrespective of region, Canadians have become highly receptive to what the political left calls 2-tier medicine and what the political right calls medical choice. The Supreme Court decision may have been a major factor in Canadians’ thinking.
Key findings:

• Canadians judge the Supreme Court decision to be reasonable rather than unreasonable by a 4:1 margin (table 1) - 71% say reasonable, 18% unreasonable;
  
  
• Only about one in seven Canadians opposes in principle Canada’s following or considering the experience of countries that offer parallel government and non-government systems (table 2)—14% vs. 75% (49% would consider carefully the experience of these countries, 26% would follow in the footsteps of other countries that report better healthcare delivery by allowing both governmental and non-governmental services);
  
  
• By 6:1 Canadians would encourage rather than discourage a friend’s looking at medical services outside the single-payer system (table 3) - 76% vs. 12%;
  
  
• If Canadians had a choice between only two hypothetical parties—one that would allow health services outside the governmental system and one that would not, the former would outpoll the latter by more than 2:1 (table 4) - 61% vs. 28%; and
  
  
• Canadians from coast to coast are largely uniform in their views.
  

These are the principal findings from a national survey undertaken by COMPAS on behalf of CIMCA, the Canadian Independent Medical Clinics Association.

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