Oona Zenda, KFF Well being Information
Earlier this 12 months, as President Donald Trump was starting to reshape the American authorities, Michael, an emergency room physician who was born, raised, and skilled in the US, packed up his household and left the nation.
Michael now works in a small-town hospital in Canada. KFF Well being Information and NPR granted him anonymity due to fears he may face reprisal from the Trump administration if he returns to the U.S. He mentioned he feels some guilt that he didn’t keep to withstand the Trump agenda however is assured in his resolution to go away. An excessive amount of of America has merely grown too comfy with violence and cruelty, he mentioned.
“A part of being a doctor is being variety to people who find themselves of their weakest place,” Michael mentioned. “And I really feel like our nation is devolving to essentially step on people who find themselves weak and susceptible.”
Michael is amongst a brand new wave of docs who’re leaving the US to flee the Trump administration. Within the months since Trump was reelected and returned to the White Home, American docs have proven skyrocketing curiosity in changing into licensed in Canada, the place dozens greater than regular have already been cleared to follow, based on Canadian licensing officers and recruiting companies.
The Medical Council of Canada mentioned in an e-mail assertion that the variety of American docs creating accounts on physiciansapply.ca, which is “sometimes step one” to being licensed in Canada, has elevated greater than 750% over the previous seven months in contrast with the identical time interval final 12 months — from 71 candidates to 615. Individually, medical licensing organizations in Canada’s most populous provinces reported an increase in Individuals both making use of for or receiving Canadian licenses, with not less than some docs disclosing they had been transferring particularly due to Trump.
“The docs that we’re speaking to are embarrassed to say they’re Individuals,” mentioned John Philpott, CEO of CanAm Doctor Recruiting, which recruits docs into Canada. “They state that proper out of the gate: ‘I’ve to go away this nation. It isn’t what it was once.'”
Canada, which has common publicly funded well being care, has lengthy been an choice for U.S.-trained docs looking for an alternative choice to the American healthcare system. Whereas it was as soon as harder for American docs to follow in Canada on account of discrepancies in medical training requirements, Canadian provinces have relaxed some licensing laws in recent times, and a few are expediting licensing for U.S.-trained physicians.
The Trump administration didn’t present any remark for this text. When requested to reply to docs’ leaving the U.S. for Canada, White Home spokesperson Kush Desai requested whether or not KFF Well being Information knew the exact variety of docs and their “citizenship standing,” then offered no additional remark. KFF Well being Information didn’t have or present this data.
Philpott, who based CanAm Doctor Recruiting within the Nineties, mentioned the cross-border motion of American and Canadian docs has for many years ebbed and flowed in response to political and financial fluctuations, however that the pull towards Canada has by no means been as robust as now.
Philpott mentioned CanAm has seen a 65% improve in American docs on the lookout for Canadian jobs between January and April, and that the corporate has been contacted by as many as 15 American docs a day.
Rohini Patel, a CanAm recruiter and physician, mentioned some contemplate pay cuts to maneuver shortly.
“They’re prepared to maneuver to Canada tomorrow,” she mentioned. “They aren’t involved about what their revenue is.”
The Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, which handles licensing in Canada’s most populous province, mentioned in a press release that it registered 116 U.S.-trained docs within the first quarter of 2025 — a rise of not less than 50% over the prior two quarters. Ontario additionally acquired license purposes from about 260 U.S.-trained docs within the first quarter of this 12 months, the group mentioned.
British Columbia, one other populous province, noticed a surge of licensure purposes from U.S.-trained docs after Election Day, based on an e-mail assertion from the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia. The assertion additionally mentioned the group licensed 28 such docs within the fiscal 12 months that led to February — triple the full of the prior 12 months.
Quebec’s Faculty of Physicians mentioned purposes from U.S.-trained docs have elevated, together with the variety of Canadian docs coming back from America to follow inside the province, nevertheless it didn’t present specifics. In a press release, the group mentioned some candidates had been attempting to get permitted to follow in Canada “particularly due to the precise presidential administration.”
Michael, the doctor who moved to Canada this 12 months, mentioned he had lengthy been cautious of what he describes as escalating right-wing political rhetoric and unchecked gun violence in the US, the latter of which he witnessed firsthand throughout a decade working in American emergency rooms.
Michael mentioned he started contemplating the transfer as Trump was operating for reelection in 2020. His breaking level got here on Jan. 6, 2021, when a violent mob of Trump supporters besieged the U.S. Capitol in an try and cease the certification of the election of Joe Biden as president.
“Civil discourse was falling aside,” he mentioned. “I had a dialog with my household about how Biden was going to be a one-term president and we had been nonetheless headed in a path of being more and more radicalized towards the suitable and an acceptance of vigilantism.”
It then took a few 12 months for Michael to turn out to be licensed in Canada, then longer for him to finalize his job and transfer, he mentioned. Whereas the licensing course of was “not troublesome,” he mentioned, it did require him to acquire licensed paperwork from his medical college and residency program.
“The method wasn’t any more durable than getting your first license in the US, which can be very bureaucratic,” Michael mentioned. “The distinction is, I feel most individuals practising within the U.S. have gotten a lot administrative fatigue that they do not need to undergo that course of once more.”
Michael mentioned he now receives near-daily emails or texts from American docs who’re looking for recommendation about transferring to Canada.
This want to go away has additionally been hanging to Hippocratic Adventures, a small enterprise that helps American docs follow medication in different international locations.
The corporate was co-founded by Ashwini Bapat, a Yale-educated physician who moved to Portugal in 2020 partially as a result of she was “terrified that Trump would win once more.” For years, Hippocratic Adventures catered to physicians with wanderlust, guiding them by way of the paperwork of getting licensed in overseas nations or conducting telemedicine from afar, Bapat mentioned.
However after Trump was reelected, clients had been not looking for grand travels throughout the globe, Bapat mentioned. Now they had been trying to find the closest emergency exit, she mentioned.
“Beforehand it had been about journey,” Bapat mentioned. “However the largest spike that we noticed, for certain, palms down, was when Trump received reelection in November. After which Inauguration Day. And principally each single day since then.”
No less than one Canadian province is actively advertising itself to American docs.
Docs Manitoba, which represents physicians within the rural province that struggles with certainly one of Canada’s worst physician shortages, launched a recruiting marketing campaign after the election to capitalize on Trump and the rise of far-right politics within the U.S.
The marketing campaign focuses on Florida and North and South Dakota and advertises “zero political interference in doctor affected person relationship” as a promoting level.
Alison Carleton, a household medication physician who moved from Iowa to Manitoba in 2017, mentioned she left to flee the every day grind of America’s for-profit well being care system and since she was appalled that Trump was elected the primary time.
Carleton mentioned she now runs a small-town clinic with low stress, much less paperwork, and no concern of burying her sufferers in medical debt.
She dropped her American citizenship final 12 months.
“Individuals I do know have mentioned, ‘You left simply in time,'” Carleton mentioned. “I inform folks, ‘I do know. When are you going to maneuver?'”
KFF Well being Information is a nationwide newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about well being points and is without doubt one of the core working applications at KFF — the unbiased supply for well being coverage analysis, polling, and journalism.
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