In fact, an increasing number of U.S. trained physicians have turned to Canada in recent years to make that choice. They’re looking for a more stable, supportive environment for their medical practices. This ongoing shift has been exacerbated by the fierce political winds in the U.S. today. This profound shift was made particularly visible during and after the Trump administration. Cases like that of Michael, an emergency room doctor, illustrate the motivations behind this migration as well as the changing perceptions of healthcare among physicians.
Michael grew up, born and raised, and trained in the United States. He took a leap of faith, moving across the world to pursue a new life and career at a rural Alberta hospital. His reflection was ignited by the 2020 presidential election cycle. It was after that election that he became profoundly concerned about the future of American healthcare and democracy with the ascension of Trump. All that changed for him on January 6, 2021. It took a violent, violent mob of Trump supporters storming the U.S. Capitol to push us over the edge. As a result, this event furthered his determination to find opportunities elsewhere in the world.
This is an important aspect of being a physician, to be nice to people who are at their most vulnerable, Michael added. He worried that the political climate in the U.S. was increasingly hostile to delivering the compassion that care required. Since making the move, he now receives inquiries almost daily from American doctors. They are calling on you to advise them on how to ensure a similar transition happens here in Canada.
Dr. Alison Carleton, a family medicine physician who moved from Iowa to Manitoba in 2017, agrees with Michael’s assessment. She was appalled by Trump’s election and felt compelled to escape the daily grind of America’s for-profit healthcare system. Today, she runs a clinic in a small, rural community. There, she’s enjoying a less-stressful pace, less paperwork, and the mental health benefit of not drowning patients in medical debt.
You caught the wave,” is what people told her after she left, Carleton remembers. In her own words, she has found a greater sense of purpose in her position. This experience, as she details, was in sharp contrast to her former practice back home in the United States.
It’s the shifting political erosion that has pushed other doctors to seriously consider taking their skillset overseas as well. Dr. Ashwini Bapat, a Yale-educated physician who co-founded Hippocratic Adventures to help American doctors pursue opportunities outside their home country. Bapat moved to Portugal in 2020, in part motivated by her fear that Trump would win a second term.
Demand to move has exploded among American doctors who want to come work up in Canada. Bapat’s group has seen a dramatic increase in interest. This uptick is part of an overall trend of medical professionals growing increasingly disenchanted with the conditions of healthcare in their native country. Canadian provinces have responded to this influx by relaxing licensing regulations in recent years, making it easier for U.S.-trained physicians to obtain licenses.
In Ontario by contrast, some 260 U.S.-trained doctors applied for licenses during the first quarter of this year. The College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia experienced an avalanche of licensure applications from American doctors following Election Day 2020. This recent trend illustrates how powerful political events can greatly affect personal career decisions.
Michael described his transition process as manageable: “The process wasn’t any harder than getting your first license in the United States, which is very bureaucratic.” This sentiment is echoed by the countless physicians who have jumped through all the hoops of Canadian licensing.
All of these trends are happening at breakneck speed. American doctors—including, significantly, the rebel docs who founded and nourish it—are on their way to building a more sustainable, more compassionate healthcare world for their own sakes and their patients’. Michael, Carleton, and Bapat make for some interesting historical case studies. Together, their experiences illustrate what motivates people to move and the evolving healthcare landscape in North America.
