How Canada And United States Ended Up Having Two Different Form Of Health Insurance

The purpose of Maioni article is to analyze how Canada and United states ended up having two different form of health care insurance. Both countries until the 1940’s shared the same histories with their political ideology and economic development. This article examines how two counties with similar ideology came to have two different welfare states and most important government funded health insurance. Maioni points out two important reason why there was a diversion between both countries in terms of their health care. The first one is parliamentary government and the second was federalism. Federalism is shared power between federal government and provincial government. Canada has a very strong federalism system as oppose to the United States

Parliamentary government explains “the rules of the game of legislative politics” (Maioni, 1997). The rules of Canada parliamentary provided a gateway for third party formation, which was unlikely in United States which was very important for health reform in Canada. The second rule was party discipline. Canada imposes a parliamentary party discipline where members from a party have to support the policies of their party leadership. This rule allows major parties in Canada from disagreeing with each other. The fact that United States did not have this form of party discipline, this gave rise to disagreement within the

The first message is the impact of left wing party (Social Democratic Party) on the development of both countries health care reform. The Social democratic party that was form in Canada was the voice for a universal health care reform. The fact that United States could not form a social democratic party, the push for a universal health care reform was left in the hands of the Democratic party coalition. Maioni wanted to show the importance of a political party pressuring the government. Although, the federal government was reluctant to re-open the universal health insurance plan, the CCF continued to pressure the federal government. Canada universal health care plan would not have been strong if it wasn’t for the constant pressure of social democratic party, they continue to ensure health care reform was on the health care agenda. Unlike the States they allowed national health insurance to be erased from policy and they were willing to settle for an alternate plan which was health insurance for vulnerable group. Another key message was that the impact of organized labour. Both Canada and America had labour movements that both supported the national program, however, Canada labour movement was as able to translate their goals into legislation. This momentum can be accredited to their political alliances with major parties. Maoini illustrates how important alliances can be when trying to implement policies.