SecondStreet.org has released their list of the Best and Worst Health Care Stories of 2025.

Of the ten stories on the list, 7 of them were among the worst health care stories.

SecondStreet Communications Director Dom Lucyk says the issues with health care in Canada do not stem from a lack of funding.

“One of the main things that we need to realize is that we can’t just keep throwing money at the system and hoping that things get better. Health care funding has been going up over the past three decades and results have only been getting worse.”

He says Canada could improve their health care system by copying other countries with universal health care.

“These places all have universal health care systems where you don’t have to pay out of pocket for health care, and they all perform better than Canada’s does. Some of the things they do differently, for one they actually allow patients to pay for private health care if they want to, while keeping the public system. Another thing is the program called activity-based funding. Instead of giving hospitals a big cheque at the start of the year, they actually fund them based on the care that they provide.”

Another initiative Lucyk believes would be effective is a cross-border directive, similar to the system in the European Union.

“In the European Union, if there’s a long wait for a surgery, you can go to another country, pay for it, and then be reimbursed by your home government up to what it would have cost to get the surgery done in your home country. So, the reason this works so well is because in the medium run it’s cost neutral. It’s a universal system, they would have paid for that surgery anyway.”

Among the good news stories were stories of provincial governments taking action to improve health care, something Lucyk hopes to see in Saskatchewan.