Tourists Left $40M in Unpaid Medical Bills in Manitoba: Report

An ambulance drives past a medical centre in Winnipeg on June 15, 2023. The Canadian Press/David Lipnowski

Foreign visitors have incurred nearly $40 million in unpaid medical expenses in Manitoba over the past five years, provincial data shows.

A report from SecondStreet.org, based on information from Manitoba’s health authority, indicates that the province has been left with $39.62 million in unpaid medical bills from fiscal 2020-2021 to fiscal 2024-2025.

SecondStreet.org President Colin Craig said the issue of tourists leaving without paying their medical bills is costing taxpayers “millions of dollars while access to health care for Manitobans continues to deteriorate.”

“If the government addressed this problem, it could have millions of dollars to actually help Manitobans,” he said in the report. “For perspective, $40 million could provide almost 3,400 patients with a unilateral hip replacement operation.”

The report outlined the losses for each fiscal year. In the fiscal year 2020-2021, the province’s losses reached $3.8 million, increasing to $8.2 million in 2021-2022, then $4.5 million in 2022-2023, $18.7 million in 2023-2024, and finally $4.5 million in 2024-2025.

The Epoch Times contacted the province’s health authority, Shared Health Manitoba, for comment but did not hear back before publication time.

The report recommended three potential policy solutions to help address the revenue shortfall and ease pressure on Canadian taxpayers.

The authors suggested provincial health regions institute mandates that visitors must settle payments before undergoing medical treatment, unless they are in need of lifesaving care.

It also suggested that the provincial government press Ottawa to enforce a policy that requires all visitors to have travel health insurance before they can enter Canada. Other nations also have similar rules in place.

For instance, 29 European countries require travellers from other nations to have health insurance. Visitors from most nations need a minimum coverage of 30,000 euros as a prerequisite for securing a travel visa, although some nationalities, including Canadians, are exempted.

The report authors also suggested that the federal government ban non-residents with unpaid medical bills from returning to Canada.

The problem of unpaid medical bills extends far beyond Manitoba, according to previous research from Second Street. Alberta has lost $92.3 million since 2020-2021, an amount that would have allowed the provincial government to perform 7,600 hip replacement surgeries, the June report said.

British Columbia, meanwhile, recorded $200.6 million during the same timeframe.

A detailed analysis for British Columbia revealed that the Fraser Health region has $94,595,000 outstanding, Interior Health has $54,129,000, Island Health has $20,900,000, and Vancouver Coastal Health has $30,982,000, culminating in a total of $200,606,000. Northern Health did not submit any data, meaning the total in health debt for B.C. could be higher.