In a recent study researchers found that only 20 in 18,000 Canadians actually ever travel abroad to seek out healthcare. That works out to be just over 1 in 1000 Canadians leaving Canada to seek medical services outside of Canada.
That is compared to a recent study released in the US that shows that nearly 1 in 50 Americans will seek treatment abroad in 2010 - many traveling to Canada for such services. The vast majority of these Americans report that they cannot afford healthcare in their home country and so must travel to other countries for services.
This data supports earlier findings that suggest that the vast majority of Canadian-American cross boarder healthcare shoppers are actually Americans who simply can't get the care they need at home. Many other American health shoppers also travel to India and other developing nations to seek medical treatment.
See
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/palin-says-family-went-to-canada-for-health-care/article1494080/
see also
http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/content/full/21/3/19
