Canada Vs. Usa Medical School Seats

[stickynote]

After doing some very basic research on the stats for Can vs US, it is clear that in Canada there are approx 1000 first year seats in med school per year, wheras in the USA there are approx 20,000 first year seats. 

 

Now considering Canada's population is around 35 million, and the USA is around 318 million- that means that USA is just under 10x larger than Canada in terms of population. 

 

Based on this you would assume that they would have 10x more first year seats, except they have 20x. Why does the USA have double the first year med seats in relation to population?

[Beacon]

There are probably other factors taken into consideration when deciding how to allocate med school seats.

 

The Canadian and US health care systems are drastically different. For example, take the source of funding for the health care system. In Canada, health care is mostly 'free'. In the US, not so much the case. Because many people end up paying for health care from their own pockets, the health care system down there probably can afford to allocate much more money to training physicians, and hence the increased med school seats.

 

Just my thoughts, there is probably much more taken into consideration.

[ooo]

Spots in private schools make money.

 

What are you really trying to say though? That the medical admissions system in Canada is unfair? 

[hero147]

I think there is like 3000 seats for first year medical students in Canada. There's already 950 seats in Ontario alone.

[stickynote]

I think there is like 3000 seats for first year medical students in Canada. There's already 950 seats in Ontario alone.

I may have been misinformed online and that would explain things perfectly if it was 3000 like you say! Since that would be exactly 10x less than the states. 

[wifflball]

.

[FreudianMarxist]

I think that it's to be noted that the American healthcare system is entirely private. They don't require funds to pay doctors and train them and what not because that is the responsibility of hospitals. With Canada it is the exact opposite: we have a public system which means that the amount of doctors that can be working has to be limited since there is only so much in the budget which means there can only be so many teaching hospitals and seats available.

 

At least that is my understanding of it.

[guy30]

This is quite interesting!  I'm a bit of a geek for this stuff but I have some more specific numbers to add for Canada, the US, Australia, New Zealand, and the UK I just quickly googled if anyone was curious.  So comparing the number of medical students, population size, and the med student/population size in millions ratio:

 

Canadian med student intake (2014): 2921, population size 35 million, 83.45

USA med student intake (2015): 20,631, population size 319 million, 64.7

Australian med student intake (2015): 3210 domestic (3777 total), population size 23 million, 139.5 for domestic students

NZ med student intake (2015): 583 domestic, population size 4.5 million, 129.6

UK med student intake (2010, domestic numbers?): 8085, population size 64.1 million, 126.1

 

The ratio for Canada about 2/3 that of Aus, NZ, and the UK but the US is about half that of Aus, NZ, and the UK when looking just at domestic students.  This means that for domestic students in their respective countries, it is much easier for students in Aus, NZ, and the UK to get into medical school compared to Canada because there are about over 1/3 more spots comparatively based on population.  The numbers for the US makes it look like the US is crazy competitive but it's important to note this is just for MD schools and doesn't include DO numbers so I imagine including DO schools would bring it similar to the ratios for the other countries?  

 

Oddly enough, the countries with higher ratios have more public funding for education compared to the US.  I wonder why there aren't more med student positions in the US if it's such a private market?  Another interesting point to note is the OECD physician to population ratio in each country which is:

 

Canada: 2.6

USA: 2.6

Australia: 3.5

NZ: 2.8

UK: 2.8

OECD average: 3.3

 

If anyone is interested in looking into the numbers further, these are the sites I used.  Also, it would be useful to get a more recent UK med student numbers if anyone has it! 

https://www.afmc.ca/publications/canadian-medical-education-statistics-cmes

https://www.aamc.org/data/facts/applicantmatriculant/

http://www.medicaldeans.org.au/statistics/annualtables/

http://www.kingsfund.org.uk/time-to-think-differently/trends/professional-attitudes-and-workforce/medical-workforce

http://www.oecd.org/els/health-systems/oecd-health-statistics-2014-frequently-requested-data.htm

[JohnGrisham]

I think that it's to be noted that the American healthcare system is entirely private. They don't require funds to pay doctors and train them and what not because that is the responsibility of hospitals. With Canada it is the exact opposite: we have a public system which means that the amount of doctors that can be working has to be limited since there is only so much in the budget which means there can only be so many teaching hospitals and seats available.

 

At least that is my understanding of it.

This is completely wrong. Their are billions of publically funded tax dollars that go into the healthcare system in the US. Just in a different manner than Canada.

[Edict]

Quebec's medical education system actually is more similar to UK and Australia more so than the rest of Canada. They take in more medical students per capita than any other province I believe and also entry to medical school is essentially the same as that in the UK, after 6th form/CEGEP.