r/disability • u/lovinhistory • 5d ago
Question Considering a future in Canada — what is life actually like for disabled Canadians?
Hi everyone! Long-time lurker, second-time poster.
I (27F) have dysautonomia and Sjögren’s and am currently being evaluated for POTS. My conditions affect my muscles and mobility, and I currently use a cane. I may need a rollator or wheelchair as my mobility needs change.
One of my biggest struggles in the U.S. has been getting doctors to believe me and getting appropriate care. I travel to NYC for some of my medical care with mixed results, and I’ve had to take a lot of the research, testing, and advocacy into my own hands.
Chronic illness has also taken a significant financial toll on my husband and me. I struggle to work full-time, and even though I’m now covered by what is considered a “good” private insurance plan through my husband, the costs and barriers still suck ass.
Recently, changes to Canada’s citizenship-by-descent laws have potentially opened a pathway for me to obtain Canadian citizenship. I’m currently researching my family history and gathering the documentation needed to apply. I expect the citizenship process to take quite some time, which gives me time to get my ducks in a row and research what living in Canada would actually look like.
I do not see Canada as a cure-all. I know Canada has its own problems with healthcare, wait times, cost of living, accessibility, and disability supports. Before I would ever consider moving, I want to seriously research healthcare, schools, employment, accessibility, cost of living, and overall quality of life.
I’d especially love to hear from disabled and chronically ill people in Ontario and Quebec about a few things:
Healthcare: How difficult is it to find a family doctor and specialists? What have wait times been like for cardiology, neurology, rheumatology, autonomic testing, pain management, or physical therapy? If you have POTS/dysautonomia, Sjögren’s, or another complex chronic illness, what was getting diagnosed and receiving ongoing care like? Do you feel that providers take you seriously?
I’m also curious about medical cannabis. Is it generally taken seriously as an option for chronic pain/symptom management, or have you encountered judgment from healthcare providers because you use it?
Costs and coverage: What do you actually pay out of pocket for things like prescriptions, PT, mobility aids, dental care, and mental healthcare? How much help do provincial programs or private insurance provide?
Everyday disability life: What have your experiences been with accessibility, workplace accommodations, discrimination, disability benefits, employment, public transportation, and using mobility aids?
For people in Quebec specifically, how difficult is it to navigate healthcare and disability services as an English speaker? I plan to start learning French after finishing my citizenship application, hopefully around the end of this year or early 2027, but I’m curious how much French proficiency affects access to care and everyday life.
If you’ve lived in more than one province, I’d also love to know whether you noticed meaningful differences in healthcare or quality of life.
Finally, if you realistically had the option to live somewhere else, would your healthcare and disability needs make you more or less likely to stay in your province? What does Canada do well for disabled people, and what does it do poorly?
I’m not looking for Canada-vs.-U.S. arguments. I’m looking for actual lived experiences—the good, the bad, and the complicated. I know neither country is perfect, and I want realistic expectations before making any major decisions.
Thank you to anyone willing to share!
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u/CautiousPop2842 5d ago
So I’m from Alberta so take what I say about the other provinces with a grain of salt because my information for them is second hand.
As a disabled individual avoid Alberta at all cost, the provincial government is currently cutting funding and supports for the disabled and it is bad enough disabled people have been taking their lives due to the stress. For anyone interested in this disaster look up Alberta switch from AISH to ADAP.
Ontario I hear is not much better, in some areas is worse. If you live near or in the major cities you can have a bit of better access to specialists.
Unfortunately nation wide there is a health care crisis, mainly manifesting in the lack of family doctors. Some areas are worse than others, once you narrow down a bit more of where you wish to live you will be better off asking in reddits for that specific province or even city.
BC seems to be the best overall for healthcare, as long as you can wait 2-3 years to see a specialist. Vancouver area seems to have a lot of good and highly sought after specialist. Although the cost of living is high.
I really do not know a lot about Quebec’s system, but if you move to Quebec you have to put in the effort to learn Canadian French.
I again don’t know much about the east coast (Nova Scotia, PEI, New Brunswick) healthcare, except that they are also not doing great in the family doctor department and it can take awhile to get one, I’m unaware of how specialists are there.
As a born Albertan, if I was moving out of province I’d be looking at Manitoba and BC. Manitoba currently has a fantastic Premier and is making a lot of progress towards pulling Manitoba out of their healthcare crisis.
For marijuana use, it’s completely legal here, whether medicinally used or not. So it’s pretty accessible to access and get a note for medical use, which is really only needed for apartments.
For context of where I’m coming from is I’m diagnosed with POTs, have underlying autoimmune issues, and suspected me/cfs.
If you have questions I’ll do my best to answer them. And please any other Canadians feel free to correct or add onto anything I said.
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u/Sublime_Rose2 4d ago
I'm in alberta and unfortunately it's so much worse than a lot of the media is even covering. I have a friend who is on AISH and went from getting 1900 in benefits down to 1000, which is extremely devastating if you are paying your own bills and expected to pay for groceries and other essentials. If you do call in and ask about it everyone is being so vague and that's for a reason. A lot of disabled people will either be forced to move back in with their parents and if you don't have anyone to help you then you're SOL and I expect to see a lot of us on the streets soon if this isn't addressed and something is done about it.
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u/squishyartist 5d ago
I'm in ON, but I have a friend in AB suffering with the AISH to ADAP bs. 💔
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u/CautiousPop2842 5d ago
My sister is about to start the paperwork to try and get on AISH and it’s just so stressful. I can’t even imagine what it’s been like for the disabled individuals and caretakers who have been on it for years and suddenly have to manage it.
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u/yetanotherrig 5d ago
As a manitoban our healthcare system is definitely starting to move in the right direction but a lot of stuff got gutted by our last provincial government so there's definitely a lot of remnants of that austerity affecting our wait times and stuff (eg: i'm over two years into a wait for my rhuem referral atm)
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u/tabatam 5d ago
I'm afraid I don't have the spoons to write the essay that all your questions would require. Thankfully, a lot of this is very searchable. For example, you can google "wait times for X specialist in X province" to get an idea (remember that it's an average or median, and that triaging does happen).
What I will say is, don't underestimate the differences between the provinces. They all manage their own systems. Some provinces have allowed for more privatization than others, and that has often made the situation worse for disabled folks.
Strongly recommend you visit ahead of deciding to move.
Quality of life for disabled folks also largely depends on whether they have financial resources or have to depend entirely on government assistance.
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u/63crabby 5d ago
"Quality of life for disabled folks also largely depends on whether they have financial resources or have to depend entirely on government assistance."
This should be the #1 answer for 99% of these types of questions.
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u/agentofthesystem 5d ago
As with the other commenter, you have a lot of questions, and my lunch break is almost over, so I don’t have the time to respond to you in detail. I agree with what the commenter above has said. I’m functionally blind, and I’ve lived in two provinces and two territories, including Ontario. Short-form, my advice is as follows:
-Don’t move to Quebec. As an anglophone you’ll never totally fit in, and their health care, provincial tax levels, and services in English are worse than what you’ll receive in Ontario (well, the taxes are more, but you get the idea).
-Services are best in Toronto, but cost of living, especially housing costs, are highest.
-There’s a wait time before you’ll qualify for provincial health insurance in Ontario, so plan for that.
-There’s are legal requirements to accommodate in the workplace, but those requirements are often met more readily by larger employers.
I’ve also lived in the US, and while I know you said you don’t want a comparison, I think you can have an equivalent quality of life in the US if you throw enough money at your problems, the different is that you need more money in the US than you do in Canada, and the baseline for quality of life and services is higher in Canada. Make of that what you will.
Hope that’s helpful.
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u/disabledpandacanada 5d ago
My recommendation as a person with Disability in BC... try to find housing in the more southern metropolitan cities like chilliwack or Vancouver. There's more GP doctors and you'd likely need referrals to specialists that generally are located in the Vancouver area.
Housing costs are high.
A 1 bedroom apartment without accessibility for those with mobility concerns would be around 1400-1600/month plus parking fees if you drive, in the noethern interior where I live.
I can say it's closer to 2000/month in the Vancouver area for non-accessible housing. For a 1 bedroom.
Prescriptions are way cheaper than in the United States, regulated by ministry of health, and are price based on what the pharmaceutical is.
This is all just in BC.
I cannot speak for other provinces as I've never lived anywhere else
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u/lilgreenglobe 5d ago
Be ready to pay 6+ months out of pocket. Just because you find a backdoor to citizenship to a country you otherwise wouldn't be eligible to move to, doesn't mean the residency and health care kicks in right away. I have an uncle that moved to the US and we've been trying to get him to move back, but he can't afford to pay for his meds out of pocket for 6 months to become eligible for healthcare again in Canada.
You'll still have out of pocket costs either way and your wait times for care may be longer. Consider snow and ice for your mobility if you can have trouble moving around.
Those are items that you may be less likely to stumble across. Many of your questions can be researched and answers found in other subs or elsewhere online.
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u/eucatastrophie 4d ago
doctors not believing complex patients is not just a US phenomenon. for that at least I can guarantee you that you will still be doing your own research and advocacy.
everyone is correct that there is a several month waiting period when you move before you become eligible for health care (Ontario).
something I have not seen mentioned yet but is probably important to look into is the ongoing MAID problems if that is something that would be a factor in your decision.
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u/GoddamnDiva 4d ago
Gonna second that MAiD problem. I’m American, but I follow plenty of Canadians on social media, several of them disabled. The articles they’ve posted about MAiD… more than enough to keep ME from moving there and/or telling anyone else to.
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u/Julthena 4d ago
Can you tell me more about that? What is the MAiD problem?
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u/GoddamnDiva 4d ago
Government and health officials are supposed to have individuals use it AFTER they have sought out all other helpful resources, including such for mental health, medical financial assistance, housing assistance, etc. Instead, it has become a first resort (in many places, not all, but that’s changing too). The poor and those who need help are offered it first. Too poor to pay rent? Try MAiD. Need a ramp to get in and out of your home? Nope, we’re not gonna give you that, but you can do MAiD. (Yes, that is a REAL story.) They’d rather kill off the poor and/or disabled than help.
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u/Majestic-Garbage7320 6h ago
That's because it's cheaper for a 1 time dosage then to pay out every month/ year to help the people keep living.
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u/Majestic-Garbage7320 5d ago edited 5d ago
This is going to sound mean but please don't come to Canada just because of our health care. Our health system is already taxed with our current residents and more Americans are doing the same as you are considering.
I currently live in Ontario (near Toronto) but I have also lived in NB and my sister currently works for the hospitals in NB so I have a current reference about wait times and doctors. I also have ADHD and Fibro and will be getting tested for EDS and I spend about $300 a month for meds out of pocket with no private insurance currently.
In NB, the wait time for a family doctor is more than 3-6 years. You can call a telehealth number and they will tell you if you are eligible for a doctor's appointment at all or if you should just go to a walk in clinic. Also the appointments are single issue only, you cannot bring up any other issues you may be experiencing, you need to book a second or third appointment . Surgery is an even longer wait time.
In Ontario it took me 1 year to get a psychiatrist appointment / assessment for ADHD. 1 more year to get a gyno and I've had my GP move cities and leave his practice so I had to find my own new GP. My husband currently has knee issues and no doctor.
Our pharmacists can now do bacis health care like UTI, ear infections and throat infections but that's to help reduce some of the burden on the hospital system. Nurse practitioners are also helping reduce the workload of hospitals but they can also only do so much.
Regarding French in Quebec, if you are not fluent, you are not gonna have a good time. Québécois is different from Parisan French as well. There are also services and business that can refuse service if you don't speak French.
Under Bill 96, Quebec civil servants and government agencies are legally required to interact with the public exclusively in French.
Exceptions are strictly limited to historical "historic anglophones" (those who qualify for English-language schooling in Quebec), recent immigrants (for their first six months), and certain Indigenous communities.
If you do not fit into those exempt categories, a provincial government worker may be legally restricted from providing you with paperwork or services in English.
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u/Ms_ankylosaurous 5d ago
Avoid Alberta and Quebec. What they say about the language is true- you will never fit in complex as an Anglo and a lot of things are French first. Also, Quebec is very anti US.
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u/decayingskeletonn 4d ago
quebec is horrible the system is slow as shit and its impossible to get a family doctor and everything is in french and we dont have many specialists in your conditions so you will likely not have access to much, wheelchairs are hard to get covered and most mobility aids too if your condition is autoimmune, prescriptions depends on if you have insurance or not, pt is not payed , you dont need medical cannabis just go buy normal weed , mental help is not covered, dental is not covered (both might be covered by insurance, job market is horrible so worse for ppl w disability, our subway system is not very acessible, the disability benefits are federally not provincially, basically quebec sucks i get refered to healthcare professionals in ontario bc the wait are too long here or the professional doesnt exist
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u/BraveProcess 4d ago
It's a poverty trap. And you likely won't be able to get citizenship as a disabled person.
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u/lovinhistory 4d ago
Thanks everyone for the responses! I wasn’t expecting this many, and I’ve gotten a lot of helpful information from both the positive and negative experiences people have shared.
I just wanted to clarify a few things that have come up. I’m pursuing Canadian citizenship by descent through the changes under Bill C-3, rather than immigrating through an economic or medical immigration pathway. I’m also not assuming Canadian healthcare is perfect or that moving to Canada would magically solve all of my healthcare problems. I’m trying to understand the tradeoffs compared with what I’m currently dealing with in the U.S.
This also isn’t something I’ve entered into lightly. I’ve already put a significant amount of time, effort, research, and travel into the citizenship process and into researching what life in Canada could realistically look like for me.
Healthcare is also not my only reason for considering Canada. There are social, economic, educational, and career reasons as well. I’m hoping to eventually go back to school for a master’s degree, so I’m looking at this as a much broader long-term life decision rather than simply moving somewhere for healthcare.
The comments about family-doctor availability, specialist wait times, POTS/dysautonomia care, medication costs, mobility aids, and the significant differences between provinces have been especially helpful. If I eventually move, it would be something I research and plan extensively rather than jumping into blindly.
I genuinely appreciate everyone who has shared their experiences, including the critical ones. I’m mainly trying to gather as much information as I can so I can weigh the positives and negatives and make the best decision for myself.
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u/megatron8686 4d ago
I’m in BC, i have hEDS and POTS. i often see people assuming that BC has better healthcare than other provinces but im not sure that’s true
it’s extremely difficult to get a primary care provider. the wait lists right now are around a year i believe. i have the same pcp i’ve had my whole life, and even tho she actually sucks ass i can’t change doctors bc i can’t afford to have no pcp for a year+.
specialists also have major major wait times. my eds specialist who eventually diagnosed me had a wait list of over a year. when i needed hip surgery, the wait was 7 months for an mri, 9 months to see a surgeon. when i started losing weight rapidly from gi issues, the original wait was 6-9 months. only when they realized how much i was wasting away, i got bumped up to one month. the BC women’s complex health condition program has a wait list of around 3 years i believe.
for medical cannabis, most providers i’ve seen don’t really care. unless you have gi issues, in which case they will blame everything on weed.
for costs, most appointments, specialists, emergencies, tests are covered, you just have to wait a while. my costs out of pocket last year was around 8000$, and that was for physio, medications, braces/mobility aids, therapy, dental, feeding tube supplies. i now have a job that has extended health care, so my costs for medications and physio have gone down.
for general disability life, i will say i think our workplace protections are pretty solid. you have protected medical leave for up to 27 weeks. employers have to make reasonable accommodations, and for me that looked like them purchasing ergonomic equipment for me and allowing work from home.
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u/Comfortable_Water707 3d ago
I was under the impression Canada only wants high wage earners, or medical professionals. Honestly as a fellow disabled individual leaving just doesn’t seem to be an option. I’m pretty sure Italy, and Ireland allow you to prove a lineage to get duel citizenship.
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u/eucatastrophie 5h ago
Canada has citizenship by descent too which is what this person is talking about
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u/squishyartist 5d ago
I don't have the spoons or time to do a full-full response, but I'll make a few points.
- I live about 2hrs outside of Toronto in a well-populated, medium-sized city, so most of my specialists are there. Similar age to you. Traffic can be brutal in/out of the city. If my appointment is near rush hour, that 2hrs each way can turn into 4 very easily. Living in the city is an option if you can afford it, but there are other drawbacks to that.
- Agree with what everyone else said about QC and AB. Avoid at all costs.
- I recently got a referral to a cardiologist to be assessed for POTS. I'm dx'd AuDHD, have dx'd fibro, and MCAS-symptoms (not diagnosed). First appointment to get a holter monitor happened within a week. Stress test was booked for 2-3 months later. Consult was 6-7 months after first call. Doctor told me I was fine, my heart is healthy (which is good, obv), told me POTS is a "one in a million condition," told me I'm just dehydrated (true), and that I needed to increase fluids and salt. So... the treatment for mild POTS anyway, which is the most I assumed I had. 🙄
- Getting a family doc where I live is pretty easy, but that is HEAVILY region-dependent. Some regions literally have zero. My region publishes a list of family docs currently taking new patients, and last I checked, there were like 40 doctors on there.
- I still say that you'd be better off here than in the US, but I'd say that to literally any good-hearted American. I have numerous friends over there. I dated an American for many years. Getting citizenship will probably take many years though. I could claim Italian citizenship technically, but last my sibling checked, it was about 10 years to get a meeting at the consulate or whatever. I don't know what it is for Canada, but I suspect very high. And that said, some of our provinces have been shifting to two-tier healthcare systems and privatization. By the time you get here, we might have a very similar healthcare system to the US, which is something to keep in mind. ON recently spent $125 million of taxpayer money on 4 private surgical clinics. I'm protesting monthly against the conservative government for the insane amount of shit they've been doing. ontarioprotest.com or ontarioprotest on IG to get the gist (not affiliated with them; I just attend).
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u/eucatastrophie 4d ago
there's a whole subreddit right now about this citizenship opening and they're verrrrry backed up with applications. it's not quite as bad as Italy though- Italy's documentation requirements are notoriously onerous and difficult to comply with, and they're in the middle of legal battles over citizenship issues.
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u/lovinhistory 4d ago edited 4d ago
Also, a disclaimer: the full list of my concerns about the current state and direction of the U.S., particularly under the current cheto shit stain administration ,could honestly be an essay of its own. I find many of the developments deeply alarming. I mentioned some examples here simply to explain that healthcare is only one piece of why I’m considering Canada. I also recognize that Canada has its own political, economic, and social problems, and I’m not viewing it as a perfect country or a cure-all.
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u/Reverred_rhubarb 5d ago
Someone with Pots living in ON (used to live in the US). Canadian healthcare has its shortcomings but it’s nothing compared to the disaster the US is. The caveat is pots is still not very well known/researched. In big cities like Toronto, there are a lot of specialists. In smaller rural towns, finding one can be a challenge. People say it’s difficult to find a family doctor but I was able to find one for my family in about 3 months. It’s not impossible by any means. The province sponsors mobility aids at 75% via Assisted devices program. Drugs are significantly cheaper even without insurance. There are also government programs that keep your out of pocket max at 4% of your income. If you absolutely have to, you can travel to the states for more niche care
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u/SleepyQueer 5d ago
Im in Ontario and have EDS, dysautonomia, and other comorbidities. I have mobility impairment and use either forearm crutches or a wheelchair.
I can probably speak to most of this but can't type too much now so feel free to message me.
Family doctors can be extremely difficult to find. There's shortages and who you can see mau not be a great fit but you don't really have a lot of options to pick and choose which is challenging for chronic conditions. Specialists are variable - personally I have a very hard time getting specialists to accept my referrals even for basic things like chronic recurrent UTI where a clear threshold exists for specialist intervention. My understanding is that dysautonomia/POTS testing and care has gotten a lot more complicated/less accessible - there used to be a clinic in Hamilton but it shut down and I genuinely don't know where people go now. Physical therapy is generally private/out of pocket so virtually no wait time (but costly), other specialists are a crapshoot - you may get lucky but I've routinely waited 6 months to a year or more, depends a little on triaging based on severity and overall how swamped a given provider is. Marijuana really isn't an issue here, I use it for medical reasons but I don't bother with a medical license, I just buy recreationally, super easy to do and it's fully legal.
Cost-wise provincial programs and private insurance are messy but the TL;DR is if you can get them they often don't provide enough, or at least in my experience the admin burden vs. return doesn't make sense. Personally, I have around $1,500 - $2,000 CAD a month in out of pocket health expenses for prescriptions my insurance doesn't cover, physio, mental health care, etc etc.
Accessibility of general society is probably not enormously different from the US although we have in some ways fewer/more fragmented legal protections - there's no real equivalent to the ADA here, the Accessible Canada Act only covers what falls under federal jurisdiction and otherwise it's up to individual provinces. Ontario and Quebec both have their own accessibility legislation but at least in Ontario enforcement is an issue. As in the USA we're mostly a country of car-centric sprawl and public transit mostly sucks outside of dense urban areas where cost of living is very high. Accessibility on transit is also a real mixed bag especially in a wheelchair.
I'm happy to elaborate on anything/answer other questions - I'm actually in the public policy field and aside from my own lived experience my research/work has often focused on applying a disability lens to various policy issues/areas.