Parting at the Crossroads: The Emergence of Health Insurance in the United States and Canada

Running head: ANALYSIS
Parting at the Crossroads: The Emergence of Health Insurance in the United
States and Canada
Name of the Student- Aditya Prayag
Student Number- 215922636
Name of the Course Director- Kenneth Lam
Course Number and Title- HLST 2020
Date of submission

1ANALYSIS
Introduction- Health Insurance refers to special kinds of insurance coverage that envelop
the costs of an individual’s surgical and medical expense. Taking into account the overall burden
of expenses related to healthcare system and the general healthcare of a person, insurers
formulate routine financial structures in the form of payroll tax or monthly premium that helps in
providing the money to pay for the benefits. The healthcare prevailing in Canada is publicly
funded, and Canadian citizens who are permanent residents of the place are eligible to apply for
specific public health insurances from their territory and/or province. Conversely, most non-
government and private health coverage in the United States is employment based. This
assignment will critically discuss the findings that are presented in an article of comparative
politics titled ‘Parting at the Crossroads’.
Key points- Aims and objectives of the article are associated with the fact that the author
tried to explore and provide an explanation on why the United States and Canada have embarked
upon two different parts and resulted in the development of varied forms of health insurance
systems. Owing to the fact that both the countries had similar kind of health insurance system
before the 1960s, made the author unravel the underlying factors that resulted in a change of
Canadian system. She conducted a theoretical debate and examined the role that healthcare
reform demands played on the political institutions that were largely responsible for governing
the insurance systems prevailing in both the countries. The statements presented by the author
were based on a comparative historical analysis. She identified major political institutions as
primary game rulers, who were mainly responsible for shaping and designing the state and the
party systems. This acted as a major determinant of the insurance policies that were formulated
by the government. She also stated that these political institutions were for the most part
responsible for either elevating or reducing the opportunities of health policies that were

2ANALYSIS
accessible to the general public. Formal institutions were also recognised to play a pivotal role in
governing the political parties in their processes. She also elucidated on the role of health
reforms in Canada (CCF-NDP) and the Medicare for the Aged Act (MAA) in the United States
that restricted the federal age eligibility to the aged residents. Failure of organised labour to
effectively bargain for retiree health insurance resulted in the legalization of federal health
insurance for the elderly in 1965 (Maioni, 1997).
Convincing- Some of the points put forth by the author were convincing. This can be
accredited to the fact that in the US, healthcare plans are generally delivered through private
companies. US residents usually take care of their health system without any particular
assistance from the government. Conversely, the healthcare system in Canada is funded by a
single system. The coverage is publicly funded and funds are obtained from the provincial and
federal taxes. Another aspect that helped is that health insurance care is usually provided by
plans in Canada that have been created in each territory and province, in place of a unified single
federal health plan. Although the Canadian government is largely accountable for paying into the
health insurance plans, the province and territory also holds and accountability for taking this
money in order to create a system, under the guidelines that have been enforced by the Canadian
health act (CHA). Furthermore, her statements can also be considered convincing since the
Canadian healthcare system comprises of an estimated 10 autonomous provincial healthcare
system that have the duty of reporting to the provincial government and a unified federal system.
This factor results in the formation of a significant degree of variation in the coverage and
funding between the US and Canada. Accuracy of a statement can also be established by the fact
that the direct healthcare government funding in the US is restricted to Medicaid, Medicare, and